


Sleeping through the End of the World

by OrphanCricket



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: BillDip, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff and Angst, Human Bill Cipher, Injury, M/M, Masturbation, Mild Gore, Nightmares, Older Dipper Pines, Older Mabel Pines, Slow Burn, cipherpines, graphic depiction of accidents and injuries, lots of wounds and blood, or before the series even ended, so some things are not perfectly canon, this fic started before I knew anything about Ford
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-02
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-03-28 17:49:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 48
Words: 175,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3864130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrphanCricket/pseuds/OrphanCricket
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper and Mabel agree to look after the Mystery Shack after defeating Bill Cipher nine years prior when the victim of a car accident appears on their doorstep. Soon they discover the stranger's true identity and intentions but it turns out to be more difficult to get rid of him than they had expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

Dipper had had his fair share of mysteries during his visits in Gravity Falls but when Mabel opened the front door of the Mystery Shack on this particular summer morning all color drained from his face.

The siblings had agreed to watch over the Shack for their great uncles while they were with Soos and his family. Soos‘ grandmother had decided to retire in the town of her parents and Grunkle Stan had agreed to help Soos with the arrangement. They would have had no problem with shutting down the Mystery Shack for a week but when Dipper and Mabel heard about their plans they decided on the spot to spend a week of their summer holidays in Gravity Falls and keep the tourist attraction running. They still visited occasionally now that they were in college and about to graduate in the following year but always seemed to buys to stay more than a few days. After the incident with the portal nine years prior Gravity Falls had lost almost all its supernatural inhabitants and secrets. For Dipper this was a huge disappointment and even Mabel got bored after two weeks of the simple rural life here. Both her friends had already moved away (Candy lived close enough to their college town to come for a visit once in a while, Grenda had decided to spend a year abroad in Austria) and so there was nothing to do but help out in the shack and watch TV.

Of course there were still sightings of giant bats or mysterious lights in the night sky but after a short investigation Dipper always came to the conclusion that a lack of sleep and intoxication with whatever substance available often led to a hyperactive imagination. Although the small town had lost its appeal for the twins and despite the possibility to spend the summer with their friends on a beach they felt no reluctance to come back for old time’s sake and help out their favorite great uncles – or greatest uncles as Mabel still used to say. They were given their old room in the attic and enough food in the fridge to last them a month and so they had settled in rather quickly after Grunkle Stan, Ford and Soos had left the previous morning.

Now Dipper wished he hadn’t eaten an extra helping of Soos‘ sugary cereals for breakfast when he looked at the person standing in the door. Or at least he hoped it was one. He was almost indistinguishable from a freshly risen zombie or victim of a werewolf mauling. His clothes were ripped and stained with what could only be blood and judging from the various cuts and missing pieces of skin it was probably his own. His right knee stuck out oddly to one side and the hand he used to steady himself on the doorframe had three obvious broken fingers. A large wound on his left temple was still gushing blood and it steadily dripped onto his shirt and pooled around his shoeless feet. His breathing was shallow and when he lifted his head to look at them they could see both his eyes were bloodshot and a few teeth were missing.

“OhmyGod,” Mabel breathed and involuntarily took a step back and braced herself against the counter.

“Please. Let me in!“  
The man’s raspy voice turned into a gurgle and he wiped a string of bloody saliva on his sleeve. “I was in an accident.“

“I’ll call an ambulance!“ Dipper reached for Mable’s arm to turn her away from the grueling sight and reached for the receiver under the counter behind a stack of cardboard boxes.

“No!“

Dipper snapped his head around and stared at the man.

“No.“ The man said with a now quieter, steadier voice. He gave Dipper a warning look then dropped his gaze to the floor, his breathing fast and shallow.

“You need help!” Mabel wailed.  
“Dipper! Call them!“

She shook his brother’s shoulder and reached for the receiver herself. He offered no resistance. Thoughts raced through his head at increasing speed. By the state of the person they might as well call the morgue. How was he still conscious or even alive? Maybe there were other people involved in the accident and they just stood here doing nothing. Mable’s hands were too shaky and she dropped the receiver after she had pried it out of his hands.

“Dipper“. Her voice was barely a whisper. “Do something!“

“Can I come in?” the stranger asked quietly “I just need to sit down for a minute“.

“Of course!“ Mabel came to his side and held onto his upper arm while he shuffled inside. She bravely ignored the shifting of bones underneath her grip but swallowed hard when she heard a crack as the man’s feet dragged over the wooden floor.

“We can call a doctor to check on you,” Mabel suggested „If you don’t want to go to a hospital“.

“No, it’s fine. I just need a short rest,” the man said and Dipper noticed the blood flowing from his temple had ceased a little but was still trickling steadily.

“I’ll get you something!“  
Mable let go off his arm and as soon as she had made sure that he wasn’t going to collapse, dashed through the back door.  
Dipper heard her climb the stairs rapidly. He picked up the receiver from the floor and held it to his ear. There was no sound. No beeping, no static, nothing. Since they all had cell phones now his Grunkles probably didn’t bother with the land line anymore and had disconnected it. Dipper reached inside his jeans pocket but remembered he had left his phone on the kitchen table this morning. He scolded himself mentally and made his way around the counter. The stranger’s gaze was fixed on the door through which Mabel had left.

„I’ll be right back,“ Dipper said and for a short moment was glad not to be in the same room with this weird guy much longer when the man’s hand suddenly shot forward and grabbed his arm. Dipper looked at the blood covered fingers and then into the man’s face. The white in his eyes was still streaked red but had cleared up quite a bit. Dark brown eyes now searched his face. Dipper felt his stomach drop. This guy was probably a psychopath, an escapee from an asylum, a murderer looking for his next victim.

“Don’t. I’ll be alright,” he said and the hard look left his eyes. “Please I… I don’t… I’ll be fine.“

His voice and gaze were even softer now and Dipper could shake of the terrified feeling clutching like icy hands at the back of his neck. The stranger even tried to give Dipper a reassuring smile but his blood stained teeth gave the impression of a wolf defending its fresh kill.  
Now Dipper could see that they weren’t any missing ones at all. Maybe he had just imagined it or the dark blood had tricked him. From a shorter distance his face in general didn’t seem as horribly disfigured at Dipper had thought when he first saw it. Apart from the wound on the side of his head and the blood covering his forehead and cheeks his features were that of a man in his mid twenties, not much older than Dipper himself and had it not been for a broken nose and his weird grin he might have even called him handsome.

“Why don’t you take a seat in the kitchen and we figure the rest out later?“ Dipper asked diplomatically and the stranger nodded in agreement. He had let go of his wrist but it was now streaked with slowly drying blood and Dipper shuddered.  
“Can you walk alright?”

“I’ll be ok“ the man repeated and Dipper noticed that he could stand up straighter than before and even walk fairly well even with his right leg giving way under his weight occasionally. Maybe he wasn’t hurt as bad as he had initially looked.

They went through the door to the kitchen and Dipper gestured to the closest wooden chair. He picked up his cell phone from the table and was about to dial when Mabel came down the stairs with a stack of towels and a bucket of steaming water. He looked up shortly and suddenly felt the phone slip from his hands. He grabbed for it instinctively but stopped astounded when he saw the stranger holding it out of his reach.

“Don’t!“, he said with a sharp voice then he coughed and it was softer „Please. As I said, I’ll be ok. Just got banged up a little”.

“A little?“ Mabel snorted and dunked a towel into the bucket. “You look like you were run over!“.

She wrung it out and handed it to the man. He took it with one hand and returned Dipper’s phone with the other. Dipper wiped it on his pants and put it into his back pocket. Besides the obvious bleeding he must have also suffered some serious brain damage, he thought, and if he didn’t want medical help so be it but they were at least obligated to call the police. Something had happened that was for sure and if nobody else had already notified the authorities that was something he would do himself. But later and not in the stranger’s presence, he decided.

Mabel ordered the man to sit in the chair while he wiped his face, wincing when he accidentally touched his nose. The white towel came back red.

“Here, let me do this,” she offered, wet another towel and started cleaning off the man’s neck and shoulders. She lightly dabbed at his temple and discovered a very long cut.  
“You should get this stitched up. Scalp wounds tend to bleed a lot.“

“Yeah no kidding,” the man said and looked down at his shirt, stiff with dried blood.

Mabel was startled by this reaction but when she received a cheeky smile the worry in her eyes turned into relief and she returned a quick grin. Once more Dipper wished he couldn’t read her face so easily. If this was going to be one of her weird summer romance crushes he was going to leave earlier than intended.  
He gave a snort and Mabel shoot him a warning glance. Nonetheless he rolled his eyes at her and she shrugged her shoulders innocently while gently wiping the side of the man’s neck. She wrung out a washcloth and gently rubbed his upper arm, then his elbow and his hands, careful not to touch his fingers to much. Despite the obvious pain the stranger clearly enjoyed the attention.   
What a creep.  
Dipper crossed his arms over his chest and made no attempt to help.

“Could you please bring me some more water?“ Mabel asked after a while with a sickening sweetness in her voice, pretending not to notice Dipper’s aversion.  
He sighed and reached for the bucket. The water was already pink.

“And see if you can find him some clothes. He can’t walk around like this“, she yelled after him when he was already on the stairs.

Dipper briefly thought if he could just take one of Grunkle Stan’s old suits. If that wasn’t a turn off for Mabel he didn’t know what was. Usually he didn’t mind his sister’s crushes but she became obsessed easily and this guy obviously was not in his right mind. Probably the effects of the accident or whatever he claimed happened but Dipper was hoping to get him out of the Shack and their lives very soon.

Upstairs in the bathroom he emptied the water into the bathtub and shuddered at the amount of blood clots. How much blood do people have again? How much can you lose without blacking out? He rinsed the tub and while the bucket filled with fresh, hot water he scrubbed his hands in the sink trying to erase any evidence of the stranger touching him. From the cupboard in the bedroom he took his oldest shirt and pants and briefly wondered if he should bring underwear and socks as well before deciding against it. He was just going to soil them anyway.  
He turned off the water when the bucket was full and then remembered to call the police. A quick glance onto his display however showed no signal and he stuck it back into his pocket with an annoyed grunt. He would have to go to the station himself or wait for better reception.

As he entered the kitchen with an armful of fresh towels and his clothes, the stranger looked almost presentable. He had cleaned most of his hair which Dipper thought was dark brown but was actually golden blonde and Mabel had done a great job scrubbing the skin around his face and neck. Dipper placed the bucket and towels on the table and dropped the clothes on the kitchen counter far out of reach of the blood stained towels. When he turned Mabel was gathering them up in a basket.

“I’ll run the washing machine, I can … should I wash your clothes too?“, she added with an embarrassed smile towards the man.

“Or we could just burn them,” Dipper interrupted and grinned when Mabel shot him a serious glance.

“Thanks but…” the man hesitated and examined a torn sleeve and his blood soaked pants “… I think they are beyond that point. I will just toss them later.”

“Alright…“, she blushed “you can change into my brother’s clothes if you want and we can get you new ones as soon as possible.“  
She handed him a new towel and made her way up the stairs.

“I’ll clean up the shop,” Dipper announced with emphasis. “Before anyone comes in and thinks we murder tourists here.“  
He tossed his shirt and jeans at the stranger.  
“Might make a great horror movie plot though“, he added and left the stranger to change out of his soiled clothes.

When he entered the shop he noticed the sudden change in atmosphere. The day had started out with a cloudless sky and the promise of another perfect summer afternoon, now it was overcast with thick dark clouds. Dipper wondered briefly if the storm would pass over them when the first drops hit the windowpanes.  
He sighed. That must have been the reason for his bad cellphone reception but now there was no way he was going into town. He looked outside and saw the tops of the trees bending in the wind. He knew how severe summer storms in this area could be and hoped there would not be too much damage on the Shack.

When he turned to get the cleaning supplies out of the nearby closet his ears picked up a shrill sound despite the wind. The Shack was quite a few yards off the main road but the police and ambulance lights were clearly visible as they passed by.  
Dipper’s felt his heart jump and before he realized what he was doing he was out of the door and running towards the road. When he reached it the cars were gone and sound of the storm was loud in his ears.  
Dipper stared in the direction of the town and he cursed under his breath. So there really had been some kind of accident and he was sure the guy sitting in their kitchen had been part of it.

The rain suddenly gained force and he shivered in his wet shirt. He could still ride into town with Soos‘ golf cart when the storm had passed and sort it out all out later. There would be uncomfortable questions, no doubt, but they could still blame everything on the storm and dead phone lines.

This really was starting to look like a horror movie, he thought and tried to laugh at his own joke but the shiver that followed was not from the rain.


	2. II

Dipper put on the second one of a pair of dry socks and leaned back in the armchair with a sigh. He had forgotten he wasn’t wearing any shoes when he ran out into the storm and when he got back he carried an impressive amount of water and mud into the shack. He decided to change and clean up the floor of the shop to clear his head before he would talk to Mabel. The stranger was suspicious but he hadn’t tried anything weird yet and he trusted Mabel to inform him of any conspicuousness.  
At the moment she was adding another pillow to the already growing amount of cushions and blankets on the sofa.

“Ok now you can lie down.” She nudged the man forward gently. He sat, put up his left leg then used his hands to put up the right and dropped onto the pillow. He sat facing Dipper but had his eyes closed. He was now wearing Dipper’s jeans and his black hoodie and Dipper decided to burn them too when all this was over.

“I’ll bring you something to drink. What do you want?” Mabel asked expectantly “Juice? Water?”  
The stranger glanced at her lazily and considered. “Do you have anything a little stronger?”  
Mabel stared taken aback and Dipper shook his head when he caught her questioning look.

“A cup of tea would be great,” the man retaliated when he felt the sudden tension between them.

“Uh…sure. Be right back.” Mabel left and Dipper got up and stared down at the stranger huddled in a thin blanket.

“What?” the man asked and Dipper felt the urge to shake him but then he noticed the pale color of his face and his anger left him.

“How’s your leg?” he asked.

“Could be worse.”

“You sure you don’t want too see anyone with a medical license? You know, a doctor…perhaps?”

The stranger smirked and shook his head briefly.  
Mabel returned with a mug of steaming black tea. “I added a little sugar, I hope that’s ok.” She handed him the beverage and the man accepted it, his hands shaking slightly.

“I’ll get you another blanket.”

“Mabel!” Dipper interrupted gesturing towards the sofa. “I think you already did enough.” Mabel stared at him.

“Can’t you see he’s freezing?” she stared at her brother in disbelief. “Who knows how much blood he’s lost. No wonder he can’t warm up properly. And with the weather like this it’s not exactly cozy in here either.” She scoffed and turned on her heels making her way upstairs again.  
Dipper rubbed his hands on his temples, feeling the beginning of a headache. “As soon as the rain clears up I’m taking you out of here.” He flopped back onto the armchair staring intently at the blanketed figure across from him sipping tea.  
The man’s face suddenly turned into a grimace and he coughed. “What exactly is your sister’s idea of a little sugar?”  
Dipper laughed before he could stop himself. As far as he knew the tea was undrinkable. “I thought you wanted a stronger drink.”

The stranger gave him an amused half-smile and Dipper involuntarily relaxed a little. Maybe the guy wasn’t so bad at all. Mabel seemed to like him and she was more of a people-person than himself. If he was up for jokes he could at least entertain them until the storm had passed. He was still going to force him into a hospital afterwards. Inner bleedings and head trauma were still a possibility and he was going to watch him closely for any symptoms. He remembered reading somewhere not to let brain damaged patients go to sleep or they might not wake up again. The thought made him shiver. He glanced over at their very own patient drinking his tea in tiny sips. If the sugar high wasn’t going to keep him awake, he was doomed anyway.

Now that the man’s face was clean Dipper noticed all the tiny cuts and bruises on his forehead and cheekbones. Even his lower lip showed a rather long cut and the swelling forced his features into a permanent pout. He looked like he had been rolling his head in shards of glass and with a sinking feeling Dipper realized that he was not too far from the truth. The large wound on the man’s temple had stopped bleeding completely now but was still crusted with blood and probably a great starting point for infections. He was about to get the first aid kit out of the kitchen when Mabel returned with a thick winter blanket.

“Sorry it took so long. I had to dig it out of the closet in the attic.” She draped it carefully around the man’s shoulder and blushed when he gave her a thankful smile.

“Tell me if you want more tea,” she added averting her eyes. “I made a whole pot.”

Dipper chuckled at that and winked at the stranger when he passed him on his way to the door. If Mabel was so friendly with him he was not going to spoil the mood for her. Even though she was a little older than him and constantly reminded him that she was his big sister (still in age but no longer in size), Dipper felt very protective of her and if she wanted to take care of a brain damaged, blood soaked, weird guy he was not going to stop her. She was going to be bored with him in a few hours anyway and then she could help convince him to see a doctor or preferably a police officer.

He entered the kitchen and flicked on the lights. It was close to noon but the sky was dark with black clouds and the rain was pouring down in dense sheets. Gusts of wind tore at the roof and walls of the shack and when Dipper grabbed the first-aid kit from the top shelf a brilliant blue light illuminated the room for a split second. The thunder followed almost instantly with a deafening roar and the kitchen lights gave a short flicker. Dipper paused to think. Some of the power lines still ran over ground and there was a good chance falling trees could knock them down easily. He placed the kit on the table and started rummaging through the drawers for a flashlight. It would come in handy when the power really went out completely. After a few minutes of fruitless search he decided to check in the closet upstairs. He took a quick peek into the living room to make sure Mabel was not getting too comfortable with the stranger. She was sitting in the armchair, her legs tucked under her and warming her fingers on a mug. The man was talking to her, too quietly for Dipper to hear, but Mabel looked at him solemnly and gave the occasional nod.  
He better not be telling her any ghost stories, Dipper thought as he walked up the stairs to the second floor.Although after all they had been through there was hardly anything left to scare her. He flicked the switch when he reached the landing and his heart skipped a beat when the light didn’t come on immediately. The bulb stayed a dull orange, flickered off, then came back on like usual and lit up the hallway in a warm glow. Dipper let out the breath he had been holding and opened the door to the closet. The light in the cramped room was dim but turned on without a fuss. He pushed around the dusty cardboard boxes until his eyes fell on one above his head labeled “barbecue”. Since they had the occasional outdoor dinner he hoped to at least find a lighter. After prying it open he found a sack of coal and several mosquito repellant candles. He felt around the heavy bag and found a gas powered camping stove and when he took it out he saw a grill lighter at the bottom. He pocketed it and grabbed a handful of the candles. At least they wouldn’t have to sit out the storm in the dark. He put the box on top of the stack in case they needed more candles and left. He headed for the stairs when he noticed the open bathroom door. That’s right, Mabel had decided to run the washing machine. He listened for the familiar noise but it was quiet. He tried the switch in the bathroom to check for a power outage but the light came on easily. There was a big pile of dirty towels on the floor but the washing machine stood open and empty. He walked towards it curiously noticing the stranger’s bloodied shirt and pants on top. Mabel had thoughtfully emptied the pockets and had put the man’s wallet, loose change and a bunch of keys into a neat pile on the edge of the sink. Dipper’s curiosity got the best of him and he flipped open the wallet. He could later check the internet for the names of missing serial killers. Under a layer of coupons for various electronic shops he found a driver’s license. The man’s expressionless face started at him. His dark brown hair almost fell into his eyes and his chin and cheeks had a softer edge. He must have dyed his hair recently Dipper concluded for the man on their sofa was clearly blonde. He made a mental note of his name – Nathaniel Clarke – and calculated his age – 24. With a height of 5’11” he was only about an inch taller than Dipper himself. His eye color read blue and the photo clearly showed light eyes but Dipper remembered looking into very dark, almost black irises when the stranger had grabbed him earlier. Maybe it was his brother’s license, they did look alike after all. Maybe there was a typo on the license. Maybe he remembered his eye color wrong or maybe … maybe the guy wasn’t the one on the photo in front of him.

Dipper took a few deep breaths and willed his heart to slow down. He tried to stop himself from jumping to conclusions. There was obviously an easy and logical explanation for all of this. No need to worry. He would just ask the stranger about it and they would all laugh at this. Dipper sighed. He briefly debated with himself about taking the license with him but then decided against it. For now he would just gather evidence. He also needed to find a way to talk to Mabel in private and warn her but he didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily. He put the license back into the wallet making sure to replace all the coupons exactly as they had been and turned off all the lights. He made his way back to the living room, dropped the lighter and candles on the kitchen table and picked up the first-aid kit instead.  
He pushed through the door and set the kit on the sofa. Mabel still looked solemn and hugged her knees to her chest.

“So, what did I miss?” Dipper asked trying to lift the heavy atmosphere. The stranger eyed him and the box curiously.

“He just told a little about himself,” Mabel explained. “…and the accident.”

“Yeah, about that. What exactly happened anyway?” Dipper looked at the stranger but he had averted his eyes and looked at the floor.

“I don’t remember,” he said quietly.

“Really?” Dipper asked trying to hide the undertone of sarcasm. How convenient. He snapped open the box and took out a handful of bandages, antiseptic and iodine ointment.

“But you must remember something,”, Dipper pushed. “I mean … you hurt your head really hard but you still remember your name, don’t you?”

The stranger still avoided eye contact and with the dim lamp it was impossible for Dipper to get a good look at his face.

“Of course. I’m ...Nathan.” the man said finally and closed his fingers more tightly around the mug.  
Dipper frowned at him and took a piece of cotton from the box. “Nathan” was close enough to the name on the license and could be an abbreviation but he still wasn’t convinced. He had to try a different approach.

“Mabel, can you get me a wet cloth. I think his head started bleeding again.”  
His sister who had been watching closely and similarly interested untangled her legs and went into the kitchen.

“So, Nathan?” Dipper put an unnecessarily amount of emphasis on the name and he was sure it didn’t go unnoticed. “Does it come with a last name?” He opened the bottle of antiseptic and poured a generous amount onto the cotton pad before kneeling on the floor in front of the man who was now staring at the blanket. Dipper could have sworn he started to look scared… or angry.

Without warning he pressed the cotton at the man’s split lip. What must have caused searing pain, only made him wince slightly. He dabbed a few more times earning no reaction at all. He opened his mouth to answer Dippers question when Mabel returned and handed him a wash cloth. Dipper thanked her and leaned over the stranger to reach his left temple. He cleaned the wound again and dabbed it with the cotton. The stranger’s pupils were hidden under his lashes and it was clear to Dipper that he did not feel comfortable in this close proximity. He also knew that this was now the only chance to ever get this close again so in a desperate last attempt he grabbed the man’s chin and pushed it upwards.

He felt a shiver run down his back. What should have been clear, blue eyes were black and glaring at him. Dipper pulled his hand away quickly and leaned back bracing for an outburst. The man however remained calm though he didn’t avert his eyes again.

“What the heck, Dipper?” Mabel came closer taking the cloth and cotton out of his hand. “Don’t hurt him! He’s already been through enough!”

Dipper stepped back and let Mabel take his place. He suddenly felt very embarrassed. There was no reason to treat the man like this just because of his own jumpiness. There were going to get rid of him soon and then the police could look into all this.

“Sorry,” he muttered and the man shot him a strange glance. Mabel shook her head at him without looking.

“Please excuse my brother”, she said mockingly “He’s not used to being among people.”  
Dipper wrinkled his nose at her and started gathering the band aids.  
When Mabel had finished with Nathan’s face she got up and took his empty mug. “I’ll get you more tea.”

Dipper sat down again and started unwrapping a couple of different sized band aids. He put a drop of ointment in the center and reached to apply one onto Nathan’s cheek. He looked up and the dark eyes were upon him once more.

“I’m not going to hurt you, kid, ok?” He spoke quietly with a sharp tone. “In my condition you have nothing to worry about.” All friendliness had gone from his face.

Dipper swallowed hard and looked nervously to the kitchen door. “I’m not worried”, he lied and put on the band aid with unsteady hands.

“Please,” the man rolled his eyes. “It’s all over your face.”

Dipper felt his cheeks grow hot and picked up another band aid. “As soon as the storm is over you’re out of here.”

“Whatever you say, kid” the man replied nonchalantly and turned his head so Dipper could reach the cut on his forehead.

“I’m not a kid,” Dipper growled “I’m 21. You’re not much older you know.”

Nathan seemed to consider this for a moment as Dipper struggled to place a larger band aid on his temple. The man’s hair was longer in the front and Dipper had to push it out of his face with one hand. He was startled at how cold the skin was under his fingers. He angled the band aid and pressed the edges down gently, careful not to trap any hair. Nathan leaned into the touch, his eyes closed.

“Your hands are really warm.”

Dipper jerked his hands back. The man looked at him, half his face obscured by a mop of golden hair and Dipper felt the sudden urge to turn and run.

“Are you guys ok?” Mabel put down a plate with chocolate chip cookies and handed Nathan a freshly filled mug. Nathan smiled again but Dipper could not shake of his feeling of distrust. He gathered up the first-aid kit when Mabel caught him at the elbow.

“Can you help me get the juice from the shelf?” she asked sweetly. “You’re taller than me.”

Dipper looked at her questioningly but followed her immediately when she made for the kitchen. The juice boxes were stored at the very bottom of the shelf but he understood her intentions when the door closed behind him. She looked at him in a way he hadn’t seen her in a while. Her cheeks were pale and she was biting her lip. When she spoke her voice was shaking.

“When he told you about the accident he said he couldn’t remember.” She crossed her arms protectively over her chest. “But he told me he fell asleep at the wheel.”

Dipper’s heart filled with dread at these words but he knew there was something he was not able to grasp. Mabel dug in her shorts and pulled out the driver’s license Dipper had held in the bathroom before.

“I went up to do the washing and …” she held it up and the familiar face looked at Dipper. “This is the man who had the accident”, Mabel explained. “and he looks like the man who asked us for help. But he is not the one sitting on our sofa now.”

Dipper's hands went numb and he rubbed them together. “I know.” He said. “His eye color is wrong.”

Mabel flipped the card over to check for herself. Her mouth was a thin line. “He looked different when I brought him new towels but I thought I had just imagined it. But when I walked back just now his hair, his jaw line, his shoulders…! Dipper, he looks nothing like he did a few hours ago! And that’s not just because we cleaned the blood off. What is wrong with him?”

Dipper felt his knees give way and dropped into a chair. “I think I know”, he whispered barely audible and Mabel stepped closer to hear him.

“If it’s true he fell asleep or lost consciousness then…then maybe something took over his body...”

Mabel’s breath hitched and she looked at him with huge eyes. Dipper hushed her and tried to calm himself. Freaking out would not help them. For now he had to protect his sister.

“If he wanted to hurt us, he would have already tried something,” he reassured her. “There must be something he wants.”

“What if we’re wrong? What if it is something else? The journals could help us.”

“But we don’t have time to get them. We have to act now, ok? His body is vulnerable and for now he doesn’t suspect anything so these are our biggest advantages.”

Mabel nodded and clasped her hands tightly around her brother’s.

They returned to the living room together and were greeted with a grin. “What’s up?”, the man asked. “You were gone quite some time.”

After seeing the photo on the license again, Dipper saw barely any resemblance. His jaw and chin were more angular and his nose straighter than of the man on the photo. Even the shape of his eyebrows was different. He couldn’t see the rest of his body because of the blanket but he was sure it was no longer the same either.

“What’s your name?”, Dipper asked and was surprised at how calm his voice was. The man blinked, his grin falling away. “What’s your name?”, Dipper asked louder more demanding and he watched Mabel take a step towards the sofa. He felt his heart beating against his ribs and was sure it could be seen through his shirt.

“I told you”, the man said narrowing his eyes at him.

“You were lying!” Dipper yelled and at that Mabel jumped onto the man’s legs. Dipper grabbed for his shoulders before he had time to react and wrapped an arm around his throat. With the other he clasped the man’s arms and pinned them to his torso. He screamed in pain and thrashed violently. Dipper enforced his grip and felt the man’s resistance weaken. Mabel had his legs in a firm grip and rested her weight on the broken leg.

“We know it’s you!” Dipper groaned struggling to hold him still “Bill!”

The body under him suddenly relaxed and the light went out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Fanart by Damare](http://damaredesigns.tumblr.com/post/118022839459/here-is-my-next-fanfiction-inspired-picture-its)


	3. III

It took Dipper several seconds before he processed the sudden loss of his vision.

„Mabel?“

„The power’s out,“ she whispered and her voice shook.

Dipper’s eyes began to adjust and he could make out his sister’s shape still holding onto the man’s leg.

“Are you ok?” he asked her.

Bill had stopped squirming and his labored breath was hot on Dipper’s arm. One part of him wanted to push his body away and get as far away from it as he could, the other was scared of what would happen if he ever let go.

“No, I’m not,” Bill answered for her through gritted teeth. Dipper felt one of his arms slip from his grasp and a cold hand buried itself into his hair.

Before he could shift his position to fend it off Bill grabbed a fistful and yanked with enough force he could muster in his current situation.

“That fucking hurts!” he yelled so close to Dipper’s ear that for a moment the pain tuned out the one from his scalp. “Get off me!” The hand tried to pull on his hair again but Dipper freed himself with a shake of his head. He tightened his grip and Bill unsuccessfully repressed a whimper.

“How did you get back?” Dipper hissed. He felt the man’s heartbeat in the veins of his throat, his breath coming in short pants. He loosened his arm but was wary for any sudden movements.

They thought they had sent Bill back to the mindscape on that eventful day many years ago after Gideon had been stupid enough to summon him. It had taken great effort and a cunning plan but they had been sure he was gone for good. Yet here he was. Ready to mess up their lives again. Grunkle Stan and Ford would not be pleased.

Dipper gave him a hard shake that made Bill cry out. “Answer me,” he demanded.

“I would tell you,” he grunted “if you didn’t try to tear off my limbs.” Bill gasped as Mabel shifted her weight. “This is someone else’s body just so you know.”

Dipper was suddenly very aware of his surroundings. He heard rain drumming against glass, wind shaking the trees and his own pulse in his ears. He felt the cold skin of the body beneath him and a throbbing pain where he was missing a strand of hair. He saw Mabel look at him with big, scared eyes when lightning flashed and lit up the room. The afterimage blurred his vision.

“If you hurt me, you hurt poor Nathan.”

Dipper flicked his tongue over dry lips and swallowed.

“Mabel, get up.”

She didn’t move. “Dipper, what-”

“Get up...please,” he added. His muscles had started to ache terribly and he was not sure how much longer he was able to hold him down.

Mabel braced her knees on the floor and lifted her weight off the man’s thighs carefully. Bill sighed in relief.

“Now leave. Go upstairs”, he ordered her and felt her stare at him despite the darkness. 

“Mabel!” She ignored the pleading in his voice and edged closer. Dipper watched in horror as she stood and leaned over the possessed body. She reached around Dipper’s arms and pushed her hands down on Bill’s shoulders.

“Mabel! Get away from him!”

She ignored her brother and tried to locate the man’s eyes in the dim light. “Dipper will now let go of you”, she said slowly, clearly pronouncing each word.

“Mabel..!”

“...and you will not try anything, you understand?”

Dipper felt the shape in his arms shift uncomfortably. If she tried to upset him, she was doing a great job.

“Did I make myself clear?” She pushed down hard and earned a painful grunt.

Dipper felt his lungs burn and realized he was holding his breath. He drew in a shaky breath and slowly relaxed his grip on Bill’s throat. Mabel let go of him altogether and put a reassuring hand on his back.

“I don’t trust him.”

Dipper did not have to turn around to read her sister’s expression and knew she felt the same. If Bill decided to fight back there was little they could do but for now he was restricted by his mortal body and obviously in a lot of pain. They could figure out the purpose of his appearance later, right now they had to stop wasting their energy aimlessly and keep the damage to the original owner’s body to a minimum.

Dipper growled in frustration and let his hands fall into his lap. Suddenly he felt very vulnerable and immensely tired. He kept his eyes on Bill and watched him closely as the other stretched his sore back.

“I left some candles in the kitchen," he told Mabel.

"Yes, I saw them." She turned her head away from the shape on the sofa with great effort and made sure the door wouldn't shut entirely when she left the living room.

Dipper's eyes were fixed on Bill. "You still owe us an explanation,” he said getting up from the floor. The storm had calmed down but the rain was still falling densely and he could only see the dark shape of Bill's head.

Bill rubbed his sore throat. “You humans are so delicate,” he said leaning his head onto the back rest.

“What do you want?” Dipper asked impatiently. “How did you get here?”

The darkest clouds had now passed and he was able to see Bill's face more clearly. It had lost all resemblance to the original host. The chubby face had been replaced by a strong chin and high cheekbones. The band-aids still covered some of his face but his lower lip was no longer swollen. Sleek eyebrows arched over dark irises and for a short moment Dipper imagined them radiating a menacing glow but he shook off the thought instantly.

"I came through the front door", Bill explained sarcastically, ignoring the first question "you invited me in".

"You know that's not what I meant", Dipper said calmly. He was not going to give him the satisfaction of getting angry. "Were you summoned again? Who was it? What kind of deal did you make?"

"Woah kid, relax! Don't get so worked up about little details!"

Dipper was about to strangle the man again when a flash of light in the corner of his eye startled him. Mabel had returned without him noticing and ignited one of the candles. She put it on the small end table next to the sofa and picked up another one.

"If it's any consolation I did not make any deals", he said and held a hand up to the flame. "Yet," he added and his grin showed almost all his teeth in the orange glow. Dipper grabbed the candle and placed it onto the TV far out of the demon's reach. Just because they were still physically unharmed did not mean Bill wouldn't pass up the chance to set the shack on fire, he thought. They would have to watch him all the time and very closely. How they would do that when they needed to sleep or use the bathroom he didn't know. They could take turns but he definitely did not want him to be alone with any of them.

"How did you get that body?" Mabel asked from the other end of the room where she emptied a row of the bookshelf to make space for two more candles. Soft yellow light had start to fill the room. Outside the lightning had stopped but the rain and wind were still going strong. Bill turned his face towards her and a mischievous grin played around his lips.

"I was just taking a walk when all of a sudden this car crashed into a tree right next to me."

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a meaningful look.

"Of course I wanted to help the guy but he was already unconscious. I took over his body to heal him up a little and bring him here so you could take care of him."

He pursed his lips and and gave the worst puppy eyes Dipper had ever seen. They knew Bill was lying. And he knew that they knew but he enjoyed their irritated faces.

"Well then thanks, I guess," Dipper huffed "You can leave now."

"You're really going to throw me out in this weather?" Bill mocked and Dipper put his face in his hands.

"We are not going to make a deal with you if that's what you're hoping for," he said rubbing his temples. "There is nothing we want."

Bill's face became expressionless once more. "Maybe there is something -I- want."

Dipper felt a sinking feeling in his abdomen. He made a mental list of every valuable object in the shack but nothing seemed to arouse the interest of a demon. He also could not think of any knowledge or secrets they possessed. It had to be something he could not just take by force. If he needed their help he would have to wait forever because Dipper was not going to hear any of it. Maybe the demon knew something they didn’t. Was he plotting another major catastrophe? Dipper ached to know Bill’s motives but would only play into his hands if he asked.

“Don’t hurt your head, kid!” Bill grinned “I will tell you eventually. Even better: You will come crawling begging me to hear my demand.”

Dipper sneered at him. Mabel who had been very quiet for the last minutes stepped up to the sofa after she had put the last of the candles on the window sill. The room was now bright enough for Dipper to see her concerned face across the room.

 

“Was he really unconscious, Bill?” she said quietly.

For a moment Dipper wasn’t sure what she was talking about then he remembered the state in which the host’s body was in when they first saw it.

 

“Was Nathaniel unconscious when he hit that tree?” Her mouth was a thin line and when he looked at Bill he saw him shrug innocently.

“Actually he was wide awake.”

“What?!” Dipper burst out. He thought Bill could only possess people when they were asleep.

“Yeah, having your car stopped so suddenly will do that to you.” He showed a sinister half smile. “At least he was until his head went through the windshield.”

Mabel put one hand over her mouth. A cold wave of dread traveled through Dipper’s body and he had to force the question out of his throat.

 

“Did he die?” he swallowed. “Bill, are you inside a dead body?”

Bill slowly turned his face towards him and a humorless grin transformed his face into a terrifying mask. Mabel barely suppressed a sob and slumped into the nearby armchair, her pale face hidden behind her hands. Dipper remembered the feeling of icy skin and he hugged his arms to his chest rubbing the palms of his hands on the sleeves of his sweater.

 

They both jumped when Bill suddenly laughed.

 

“You kids crack me up. Never seen a corpse? Didn’t you fight zombies or something at one time?”

 

Dipper and Mabel kept staring at him in horror and Bill gave an exasperated sigh.

 

“Not that it’s any of your business but in case you forgot,” he pointed a finger at himself “I’m a dream demon. I make nightmares and mess with people’s heads. I cannot take over someone who cannot fall asleep anymore."  
Mabel sighed in relief then frowned.

"So where's that Nathan-guy then? Is he in the mindscape?" Her eyes searched the dark corners of the ceiling. "Is he floating around here right now or...?"

"He's somewhere in his own subconsciousness."

"What does that mean?" Dipper asked curiously.

"Jeez, Pine Tree, why do you always want to know everything?" Bill laid his head on the armrest and started pulling at the band-aid on his cheek.

"He hit his head so bad he lost consciousness," he continued. "And he slipped into a different dream-state. It's complicated but you could say he is in a coma. Which he is really not because that's primarily a physical state not a mental one but you get the idea."

"But if he's not in the mindscape," Dipper pushed "where is he?"

Bill peeled the band-aid from his skin and glared at him. "Why do you ask? What do you even care about that guy. You don't know him."

Dipper held his gaze and Bill exhaled audibly.

"Ok listen, the mindscape is where you go when you dream. It's a projection of your subconsciousness. Everything that you love, hate, fear or whatever you humans do with your emotions is placed into your subconsciousness and becomes tangible in the mindscape. For example, if you are scared of something you will have nightmares about it. Easy as that." He raised a hand before Dipper could interrupt him.

"Now, people in a coma can't enter the mindscape, they are stuck in their subconsciousness. They don't dream, they don't feel, they have no perception for the passing of time or even their own existence. All they have left is pure emotion but they're unable to make any sense of it. As long as I'm in control of his body he will stay there and if I ever chose to leave he can go on living his boring live. No harm done."

"Except for the destruction of his organs and limbs," Dipper added sarcastically.

Bill started tugging at the band-aid on his forehead.

"Don't worry about that," he said and lifted his hair so that Dipper could see pink, freshly healed skin where the cuts had been. "Still a demon. I have powers, you know."

"Is that the reason you changed the body so much?" Mabel asked.

Bill looked perplexed first at them then down at his chest and legs. "I might have changed a little too much. That's how you got me, so fast, huh?"

"The license had a different eye color," Dipper explained. "And your name didn't match either."

"Yeah I got it from the guy shortly before I took over. Should have listened more closely but I was busy keeping him alive." He shrugged. "I knew you would find out sooner or later anyway."

"So all you needed was a vessel. But couldn't you have contacted us in our dreams through the mindscape?"

Bill gave him a long, hard look and Dipper knew it was the perfect time to stop the interrogation. There were more questions on his mind but they would have to wait. It was a lot to take in as it was.

Bill stretched his arms over his head and yawned. "How do you do this?" He let his arms hang over the edge of the sofa and wiggled his recovered fingers. "You human are either tired or hungry or cold...There is always something going on inside of you. Can you not be satisfied once in a while?" He threw an arm over his eyes. "I hate this."

"Well your body was going through a lot lately," Mabel said "it needs to recover. Do you need anything?"

"Mabel, don't!" Dipper scolded her. "If he hates being in a body so much he can just leave!"

"Yeah, I could," Bill agreed not looking at them. "But I don't know what will become of poor Nathaniel. I guess he will just start bleeding again and he really wouldn't want to ruin your carpet."

Dipper pressed his lips together. They had to figure out how to handle this messed up situation. Sure it was Bill and they couldn't care less about his suffering but it was also Nathaniel and the guy still needed an intact body.

"More tea, please!" Bill demanded and shot Mabel a mocking glance.

Mabel took the mug from the floor and went to fill it in the kitchen. Dipper stepped in front of the sofa and kneeled. With a quick motion he grabbed both of Bill's wrist. The demon didn't seem surprised but looked at him with a merely bored expression.

"If you think you can just show up here and order us around," Dipper growled, his face inches from Bill's "I promise I will do everything to make you as uncomfortable as possible. We will get rid of you like we did last time and believe me, the pain you experienced until now will be nothing compared to what I will do to you if you think about hurting my sister or anyone from my family!"

Bill raised one eyebrow. "You sure have guts, Pine Tree, but as I said: you will come begging to help me sooner than you think." 

Dipper narrowed his eyes threateningly and Bill grinned. “How do you make your hands so warm?”

Dipper huffed and released his arms, pushing them away. He got up just as Mabel returned. She shot her brother a curious glance and handed Bill the mug. The demon grimaced and looked at her disappointed.

“Sorry, it’s cold,” she said. “I can’t warm it up, we have no electricity”

“He’ll live,” Dipper scoffed and glared when Bill set the mug down again.

“If I freeze to death, maybe I’ll just take your body again, Pine Tree. How does that sound? Or perhaps I can start a little fire for me right here.”

Dipper rolled his eyes. He was sure these were empty threats but a part of him was still worried. If he wanted to destroy something he’d had chances enough. What did he want then?

“I will rest a bit if you don’t mind,” Bill said and turned his back on them.

“What?” A sudden thought appeared in his head and when he turned to Mabel to tell her he saw she already knew. If Bill let the body go to sleep he would lose it. He would be replaced by the original owner and everything would be back to normal.

“We’ll let you sleep then,” Dipper said eagerly and pushed towards the door. He stopped when he heard a chuckle.

“Don’t get your hopes up, kids.” Bill locked over his shoulder. “I already explained it to you. Nathaniel is trapped deep in his own mind, he doesn’t know someone has gotten ahold of his body. He can't push me out."

Mabel’s hands closed over Dippers.

“This is my body now and I decide what I want to do with it.” Bill turned away and pulled the blanket over his head. His voice was muffled. “And right now I want to take a nap.”

The twins left the room and took a seat at the kitchen table. Mabel put a reassuring hand on Dipper’s back.

“At least now he’s easier to watch,” she suggested. Dipper sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“If he can keep a body even when asleep…”

Mabel looked at him expectantly.

“...what happens if he gets a hold of either of us?” He looked at his sister's worried face and she swallowed before answering.

"That means ... as long as he's here... we mustn't fall asleep."


	4. IV

They ate in silence. Bill had been quiet for over an hour now and they assumed he really was sleeping. Dipper suspected that not even Bill was strong enough to keep a body in need of sleep awake for an extended amount of time. They had found a packet of toast and sliced turkey and although they weren't particularly hungry Mabel had insisted they needed all their strength if Bill's docile demeanour would change unexpectedly. The power still hadn't come back on and Dipper feared that it would stay that way until morning. The storm had lost its initial force in the last minutes and they no longer needed candles to light the room but he was sure that there was a great deal of damage in the town. It would take a while before someone came over to fix the power line. He looked over at Mabel and she was chewing on her sandwich just as enthusiastically as he felt.

"Is your phone working?" she asked. "We should tell Grunkle Stan and Ford."

Dipper hadn't thought about that. He swallowed the dry piece of toast and took out his phone. Still no reception. It was raining heavily but could that jam his signal? And then it hit him.

"That bastard," he groaned and Mabel raised her eyebrows at him. "Bill was holding it. He must have done something to it so we wouldn't call for help. Dammit!"

"But he didn't touch mine," Mabel said holding it out to him. Its screen remained black.

"I'm sure he doesn't need to," Dipper sighed. "We'll walk into town later and call them."

"But it could take them hours to get back. And what can they do?"

"I don't know. But it's better than waiting for them for a week. Who knows what Bill will do during that time?"

Mabel put down the rest of her lunch. "Maybe we can fix it ourselves." She sounded convinced but Dipper only gave her a weak smile.

"No, think about it! We already beat so many monsters and supernatural stuff. We can just do it again! We even defeated Bill back then."

"Yeah? Well, we didn't do a very good job then."

"Come on! Work with me here!" She got to her feet and slammed her hands onto the table. "Let's get the journals!"

Dipper's eyes widened. "Don't be ridiculous."

Mabel huffed. "I don't know about you but I don't want to spend my vacation babysitting a lunatic!"

"It's no use! Even if we had the journals... there's nothing in there we haven't tried already."

"But we have to at least pretend to make an effort!"

"It's no use! Let's just..." he put his face in the crook of his arm "...let's just wait for Ford to get back. He will handle it."

Mabel flipped her long hair over her shoulder and marched towards the stairs.

"Where're you going?"

"I still have laundry to do and you have to think about your attitude!"

Her steps were loud on the wooden stairs and once she reached the bathroom she slammed the door.

Dipper crunched his teeth. He felt so angry, and defeated, and miserable. Whatever they had done nine years ago had been in vain. They could not do it again. Bill was following them like a curse.  
Under different circumstances he would be the first to think of a plan but without the journals he felt useless. And there was nothing useful in them anyway? Eventually they would have to agree to whatever deal Bill had in mind and Dipper hated himself for even considering that. No wonder Mabel was angry with him. It wasn't like him to give up so easily.  
He decides to check on Bill. The silence made him uneasy. They had left only the one candle on   
the TV and taken the rest with them yet Dipper was surprised at how bright the room was. Bill's shape was barely visible under the blanket and for a short moment Dipper thought he had disappeared. He stepped closer to make sure he was still breathing. Maybe he's injuries were too severe even for a demon and he had simply left them a dead body to explain to the cops. Dipper's hopes were destroyed when Bill pulled the blanket from his face.

"What's up, Pine Tree?" he growled sleepily. "Want me to tell you about my deal? I knew you couldn't resist for long."

Dipper glared at him but said nothing.

Bill yawned and kicked the blanket off his right leg. He prodded his knee carefully with the tips of his fingers then moved up to his thigh. He flexed it tentatively and hissed at the pain.  
"You human heal awfully slow.”

“Did you enjoy your nap?” Dipper asked changing the subject.

Bill stretched out his leg again. “I could have,” he said crossing his arms behind his head. “If this body didn’t ache so terribly.”  
“Considering the damage it took you fixed it up pretty quickly.”

Bill winked at him. “I take that as a compliment, Pine Tree.” He tucked his arms inside the blanket again. “I just wish it would be more comfortable. Do you just get used to it or how does it work?”

“Being human? I don’t know what you expected but I’m sure it feels better if you didn’t just crawl out of a car wreck.”

“Very funny. I fixed most of the larger bones already and I think my organs are working again but I can’t get this body heat thing to work.”

Bill put his hoodie over his head and placed the blanket around it. Dipper shrugged.

“Sorry can’t help you with that. We have no power and no warm water. Maybe tomorrow.”

Bill grinned at him. “I get the feeling you don’t want me to feel homely.”  
Dipper walked over to the TV and blew out the candle as an answer. He felt Bill glare at him. With the last lightsource gone he could see that the outside wasn’t as bleak as before. The rain had slowed to a lazy drizzle and the wind had calmed down completely. The storm was finally over. His mood lightened at the thought.

“I think your body lost too much blood in the accident,” Dipper said and dropped into the armchair. “Can’t you just … I don’t know … make some.”

“I did already. Maybe it died on me while I was sleeping.”

Dipper grimaced. “Then lie outside. I don’t want you stinking up the house.”

Bill laughed and Dipper was startled by the genuineness. I felt weird but also nice compared to Bill’s usual sarcastic demeanor.

“So,” Dipper said trying to distract himself from feeling anything but hate and mistrust for the demon. “How do you sleep anyway?” He started picking at the seams of the chair where the cotton filling came out. “Do you go back to the mindscape? Do you dream?”  
Dipper pulled a string of cotton out of the armrest, rolled it into a ball and flicked it into a corner. He looked at Bill when the other still hadn’t answered. The angry face he expected for asking too many questions again was not there. In fact, he wasn’t looking at him at all. Bill traced the pattern of the blanket absentmindedly then seemed to think of something and smiled at Dipper.

“I will answer your question, when you do a little something for me.”

Dipper’s breath caught. “I will not make any deals with you!” He tried to keep his voice down but was very close to yelling.  
“Easy, Pine Tree.” Bill held up both hands defensively although he had to free them from the blanket first. “Who said anything about a deal?”

Dipper shot him a hateful look and got off the armchair ready to leave the room. He was almost at the door when Bill said something that made him stop.

“You think I’m planning something for when you fall asleep.”

Dipper turned around slowly his pulse picking up speed.

“Now I got your attention, huh?” He leaned his head back and looked at him upside down. His grin looked especially upsetting from this angle.

“If you do me a tiny favour, I promise not to try anything and you and your sister can have a good night’s rest as long as I’m here.”

Dipper remained motionless considering his options then he turned towards the door again. He had promised himself not to make any deals. There was no way he could trust Bill. Even if it risked his own or Mabel’s safety.

“I’m not talking about a deal here, kid. Just an exchange of favours.”

“I don’t trust you”, Dipper scoffed.

“You can at least hear me out. I would have to tell you sooner or later anyway, I guess.” Bill turned around so he was lying on his stomach.   
“I will tell you why I’m here. Isn’t this something you’re interested in?”

Dipper looked at him intently. If he knew why Bill was here and how he’d gotten back, he could look for a way to get rid of him again. Bill must have thought about that too so why was he risking it? What kind of favour did he want?

“I know how you humans work,” Bill said matter-of-factly. “You do nothing without a reason and you always expect rewards. Everything has to have some kind of benefit for you because nothing comes without a price. Or that’s what you think.”  
He sat up carefully putting his injured leg over the edge of the sofa. He pulled the blanket around his shoulders.  
“That’s how you’ve been thinking for hundreds of years and that’s how I keep my business going. People think everything can be bought at the right price and people want everything.”

“Get to the point!” Dipper scoffed impatiently.

“I’m just saying. I usually get what I want. It just depends on the price.”  
A shiver ran down Dipper’s spine and he no longer wanted to be in the same room with the demon.

“I know you crave for knowledge, Pine Tree. You want to know and be in control of everything so I will tell you a secret.”

“I don’t care,” Dipper growled but didn’t move.

“Yes, you do.” Bill smirked. He plucked the last of the bandages from his temple and felt over the fresh scar with his fingers. Except for his dirty hair he now looked like a regular person and no longer like a walking corpse.

“Listen carefully, I will just say it this one time.” He made sure to have Dipper’s full attention. He took a deep breath and his words were barely a whisper.

“I cannot enter the mindscape any more.”

Dipper started at him for many long moments. This didn’t answer any questions, it just raised more. Bill relished his confusion before continuing.

“That means I cannot harm you … at least not in your dreams.” he added. “So there’s nothing to worry about.

“But then… how did … what-” Dipper uttered to shocked to even think coherently.

“That’s enough questions, Pine Tree,” he warned. He leaned back and waited patiently for Dipper to process the new information.

“How did you get here then?” Dipper blurted before he could stop himself. “This doesn’t make any sense!”

Bill sneered at him. “What did I just say? Figure it out yourself! I told you enough already. And besides…” he rested his head on his hand and gave Dipper a hard look. “...I kept my part of the deal.”

Dipper swallowed. “We didn’t agree on any deals!”

“Yes we did. You could have walked out right there but you didn’t. That was good enough for me.”

Dippers heart raced in his chest. His tongue felt like sandpaper. If this was all it took to make a deal with a demon what else had they already agreed on? What had Mabel said or done while he had left them alone?  
Fear clawd like icy hands at his heart and he felt sizzling rage beginning to form inside him. Bill had tricked them into letting him into the shack and now he meant to use them for his plans.

Bill must have felt the rising tension because he pushed himself to the other side of the sofa, farthest from Dipper’s clenched fists which he eyed warily and smiled.

“Calm down, Pine Tree, it wasn’t a regular deal. We didn’t shake on it.”

Dipper felt a part of the anger leave him but he still didn’t let his guard down.

“Did you see any blue flames, kid? Huh? Me neither! So no demon-deal. Just a normal human-deal kind of thing.”

Dipper’s shoulder slumped and he started rubbing at his temples again. He felt relieved but the adrenaline in his system was still making his heart and lungs sting.  
“You are drastically shortening my lifespan, you know that?”

Bill grinned at that. “Don’t challenge me! You have seen nothing yet:”

Dipper took a few calming breaths then crossed his arms. “I know you have lots of other things you’re not telling me. Why don’t you spill everything?”

“Nice try, Pine Tree. But this is far more than I planned to tell you in the first place.”

Dipper sighed. He couldn’t be sure if Bill was telling the truth. He made a note not to let his guard down regardless of what the demon had said but he couldn’t find a reason why he would lie about something like that. He would have to confer with Mabel later.

“So what do you want?”

Bill looked perplexed then his lips widened in a grin. “I knew you were up for deals.”

“I’m not,” Dipper clarified “I just don’t want to owe anything to you. If I don’t like it I can still refuse.”

“That’s correct,” Bill said. “But that’s not like you, is it?”

He leaned closer again and gestured Dipper to sit down in the chair again. He walked back and sat at the very edge, his eyes not leaving the demon’s face. Bill placed his chin on his wrist and seemed to contemplate how to word his demand. His gaze wandered across the room then finally settled on Dipper’s chest.

“Give me your sweater”, he said calmly.

Dipper blinked twice. He must have misheard. “Uh...excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“You already have one of mine.”

“I want this one.”

Dipper huffed. He was unable to see the evil plan Bill had to be thinking up. He would probably sell his soul when he complied. But on the other hand, what could he do with a simple sweater? Sure it was his favorite but Bill didn’t know that.

“Don’t worry, you get it back.”

“What do you want with it?”

Bill gave a soft chuckle. “Nothing. I just want to put it on.” He reached out his hand in expectation.

Dipper made a face but then pulled the dark blue sweater over his head and handed it to Bill. The shack was still cold from the storm and Dipper felt a little chilly just in his T-shirt. He eyed the demon curiously. Bill slipped out of the blanket and undid the zipper of his hoodie. He shook it off and quickly pulled the sweater over his head. Dipper inhaled sharply when he got a glimpse of large bruises covering his back and sides. Bill didn’t seem to notice. He tucked the blanket around him again and sighed contently.

“You are weird, you know that?”

Bill closed his eyes and shrugged with one shoulder. “I told you I was cold. And your sweater is so much warmer.”

Dipper waited for the consequences. “Was that it?”

Bill cracked an eye open and smiled mischievously. “Actually, now that you mention it …”

Dipper threw his hands up. Of course there was a catch.

“...can you put on mine and warm it up too?”

For a second Dipper pondered the impact of brain damage on a possessing demon then picked up the black hoodie from the floor.

“You do know that both of them belong to me, right?”

“Don’t be a nitpicker and put it on already.”

Dipper held up the piece of clothing and inspected it. He still refused to believe that Bill was just cold in his anaemic body but he could find nothing suspicious about it. Nevertheless he tossed it onto the chair and started to leave.

“Hey!” Bill yelled after him. “What about my hoodie?”

“I don’t trust you”, Dipper said again pushing open the door to the kitchen.

“Yeah I get that a lot.” Bill laughed softly and the door closed behind him.


	5. V

The sink was filled to the rim with pink water. Mabel dunked the shirt again and rubbed the fabric even harder. She lifted it up and looked dissatisfied at the large stain.  
Dipper had watched her repeat that three times since he had entered the bathroom. Ultimately she let it fall back into the dirty water and turned to him.

"I just don't get it", she said.

"Just throw it out. It's torn anyway."

She gave him an exasperated look. "Not the shirt!... Bill."

Dipper tilted his head. "We can throw him out any time."

Mabel groaned and picked up the shirt again to wring it out. It left brown stains on the faucet. She drained the water and grabbed a sponge to clean up the mess.

"What I mean is...," she said "... How do we know he's telling the truth? If he really can't go to the mindscape any more why would he come to us? How should we help him?"

"The real question is why does he think we would?"

" I know! After all he put us through what does he expect?"

Mabel stuffed the dripping shirt and pants into a plastic bag and peeled off the rubber gloves. She gave her brother a long worried look.

“I don’t like this, Dipper. For almost ten years this place was boringly peaceful and all of a sudden the demon we thought we’d destroyed shows up again. Just like that. I don’t know what to make of this.”

She picked up the bag and opened the door.

“I liked it here, even without the adventures we had when we were kids,” she said quietly hiding her face behind her hair. “But now I wish we hadn’t come.”

“Mabel, I’m sorry-.”

“I’m scared, Dipper.” She faced him and for the first time Dipper saw how upset she really was. His usually cheerful sister, who had been looking forward so much to this vacation, was deeply troubled.

“You know how powerful he was,” she whispered.

Dipper stepped over and closed his arms around her. He hugged her close and felt her narrow shoulders and thin arms. Never before had she appeared so vulnerable to him.

“I’m sorry,” he said again. “We will find a way out of this.”

She pushed him away gently and her eyes were hopeful.

“You said there was nothing we could do.”

Dipper smirked. “We’re the Mystery Twins, we will figure something out.”

Mabel smiled weakly and wiped at her eyes. “I wish Grunkle Stan was here.”

“Me too,” Dipper sighed. “But we can’t wait for him. Bill’s body will have healed soon and then our only advantage will be gone.”

“So what do we do?”

Dipper led her out of the bathroom and paused dramatically.

“We will get the journals.”

Mabel's face was suddenly full of determination then was briefly darkened by a worried look.

"What about Bill?" she asked him. "He will become suspicious."

" He's still weak. But we better hurry."

"Let's wait until he's asleep again." she suggested and Dipper nodded.

A dark feeling had started to spread in his stomach. It felt like the moment before going down the steepest hill of a roller coaster. It was not the sensation of falling but the realization of being pushed with no way of turning back.

"I'll hang these up real quick." Mabel pointed to the bag. "And then I'll help you think."

Dipper watched her descend the stairs when a sudden thought struck him. He went back into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. There were countless blisters and pill bottles. Most of them not labeled. He picked one at random and flipped it over. It had expired two years ago. He threw it into the trash bin and took out a handful of packets which labels seemed familiar. It took him several tries before finding a bottle of painkillers which were still good to use and weren't discolored or stuck to each other. He pocketed it and tossed the rest.  
In the hallway his eyes fell on the closet door and he remembered the camping stove he had found earlier. They could use it to warm up some tea or soup later. Maybe even heat up some water to wash. Bill could finally clean his filthy hair. He flicked the light switch and was almost immediately startled by his own stupidity. The tiny room remained dark. Sometimes his mind was somewhere else entirely. He held out his hands in front of him and felt for the boxes on the floor careful not to trip. In the darkness the room seemed bigger and it took him a while before his finger grazed on metal and he grabbed the stove. He stepped back towards the exit and his heart skipped a beat when he couldn't find the door immediately. Panicking he reached forward too fast and scraped his fingers on the rough wall before he touched wood and was able to yank the door open. Once on the stairs he took a deep breath and felt glad that nobody had watched him embarrass himself twice in such a short time.

Before he entered the living room he put the stove on the kitchen table and filled a glass with water. He took it with him and placed it on the small table next to the sofa. Bill, still draped in the blanket, watched him closely.

"Is that for me? That is so thoughtful of you." He smiled then wrinkled his nose. "Considering I need to use the bathroom really bad."

Dipper ignored his remark, moved his black hoodie aside and sat in the armchair.  
"I want to make another deal with you."

Bill's eyes gleamed. "Someone's developed a taste, hmm?" He smirked but the look he gave Dipper was wary. It changed to curious when he saw the bottle of pills being held out to him. 

"You can have one of these if you answer one simple question."

Bill gave a soft chuckle. " You sure know how to play, Pine Tree."

He reached for the bottle but Dipper snatched it out of his reach. Bill crossed his blanketed arms and rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "What do you want to know?"

Dipper began to unscrew the top of the bottle. "How is it, being in a human body?"

Bill suppressed a laugh. "Shouldn't you already know that?"

Dipper glared at him but waited patiently.

Bill glanced at the painkillers. "It sucks." He avoided Dipper's eyes. "There's your answer. I don't know what you want to hear."

"I can tell you're in a lot of pain."

" Duh... I got that body from a car wreck. Not the best place but it does a decent job."

"How long will it take you to heal it?"

Dipper dropped the question casually but Bill's expression darkened and he feared the demon would see right through him.

"Why do you care?"

"I was just wondering," Dipper said innocently holding his gaze.

"I feel a lot better actually, thanks for asking." He eyed the small white pill between Dipper's fingers again. "And what do you really want to know?"

Dipper rolled the pill around on his palm. He had to find out where the limits to Bill's powers were. Possessing a human would greatly restrict his abilities but that didn't mean he was not a threat. A human couldn’t jam cell phone signals. There was something Bill wasn't telling him. Something bigger than the story of not being able to enter the mindscape. Until then they couldn't be sure if he was lying to them or not. There was just no trusting Bill.

"Why did you change the body so much?"

If Bill didn't want to answer direct questions he would have to use a different approach, Dipper thought.

Bill’s face lost its smugness and became more sincere and Dipper wondered if that’s what he looked like when he was alone. The moment passed and the smirk was back.

“I didn’t like the original. He was too … ordinary.”

Dipper arched his eyebrows. “You can just do that?”

“Never seen the exorcist, Pine Tree?”

Dipper vaguely remembered the distorted face of the demon-possessed child and tried to imagine Bill with sunken eyes, a crazy stare and rotten teeth.

“Aren’t you glad I’m prettier than that?” he grinned. “The more power a demon puts into its body the more it changes to its original appearance and I had to put in a lot to fix that guy.”

“Original appearance?” Dipper asked and Bill shot him a warning glance.

“I wasn’t even aware it was happening,” he said dismissing Dipper's remark and held out his hand expectantly.  
Dipper was about to drop the pill into the other’s hand when another burning question formed in his mind. Bill read his face and watched him with growing impatience.

“What happens if your body dies?”, Dipper asked.

Bill wrinkled his nose. “That’s dark, Pine Tree. But I guess it will just change back the way it was when I got it.”

Dipper shook his head briefly. “No, I mean what happens to you? You already told us you can’t possess a dead body so where do you go if not into the mindscape?”

He felt Bill’s rising anger and knew he was pushing his luck.

“Where I was before”, Bill said shortly and when he took the pill from Dipper’s hand the other didn’t object. He popped it into his mouth and swallowed it dry.

“How do you know I’m not poisoning you?” Dipper asked and watched the hint of fear cross over the other’s face. It was replaced by a grin almost instantaneously.

“You wouldn't risk the life of an innocent person just to annoy me. And besides..."  
He winked. "If this one fails I can always take over your body again." Dipper knew he was bluffing but the memory that resurfaced was uncomfortable.

"But it looks like you don't need my help to hurt yourself."

Dipper followed his gaze and looked down at the fingers of his right hand. They were scratched and showed streaks of dried blood where the wall had broken the skin. He hid them behind his left hand.

"It's nothing. I didn't even notice it."

Bill chuckled. "Humans are so interesting", he said delighted. "How could you not notice that?"

Dipper shrugged. "I must've been distracted, don't know. Why is it such a big deal to you?"  
He thought about the moment in the closet and hoped Bill wouldn't ask for too many details. To his relief Bill seemed lost in his own thoughts. He looked at his own hands and turned them over curiously.

"A human mind is truly amazing", he said quietly and Dipper could not detect and sarcasm in his voice. "Only a small percentage of what is going on around you actually makes it into your head, you know. But there is so much you're missing."

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "I thought the meds were still usable, sorry."

Bill looked at him for a moment then caught on and laughed. "For once I'm being serious and you keep ruining the mood."

Dipper frowned theatrically. "That's what all the girls say as well."

Bill barely hid a grin and put his hands under the blanket again. "I thought you wanted to know what it feels like to be human."

Dipper was surprised that he'd remembered his initial question and was even ready to answer. A deal's a deal, he thought but Bill made sure to let him know who was in charge.

"You said we are missing something, what do you mean by that?"

"Not just something, most of it," Bill corrected him. "You go to sleep at night and have lived only a tiny portion of your day. Then you spend the night processing the things your brain kept from you during the day."

Dipper tilted his head and watched Bill with sincere interest. He had never had a real conversation with the demon and was eager to listen. He not only had a vast knowledge about the mind and other dimensions but was also apparently happy to share some of it.

“For example,” he pointed to Dipper’s feet. “You are usually not aware you are wearing socks, except if you concentrate on it. The nerves in your skin send a constant stream of information to your spinal cord and into your brain. This signal is checked for immediate relevance and in most cases ignored. It is not important for your brain to know the state of your socks at every moment of your life. If you were aware of everything at anytime you would probably go insane.”  
Bill paused to let his words sink in.

“In the mindscape,” he continued when Dipper didn’t make an effort to interrupt him. “I can use that information to manipulate dreams, thoughts, even memories. I know every detail and there is no need for me to disregard anything. Or at least that’s how it was.” He sighed.

“Now in this body…,” he said leaning forward. “I have no way to filter the sensory input. I feel everything.”

He freed one arm from the underneath the blanket and touched the back of Dipper’s hand with chilly fingertips. Dipper’s first thought was to pull away but Bill’s touch was gentle and he showed no sign of malevolence.

“There are different types of nerve cells in the skin,” he said his eyes transfixed on his fingers tracing Dipper’s tendons. “Some transmit touch, others the amount of pressure. I can feel your body heat and the texture of your skin.”

He pulled away and Dipper rubbed over his hand.  
“And that’s just the information from the tips of my fingers.” Bill looked up to make sure he had his full attention.

"Then there's the movement of my muscles, the position of my limbs, the beating of my heart. I can feel the pull of gravity and the shifting of air around me. My head is full of light and sound and smell and pain."

He laid a hand on his injured leg and took a few calming breaths. "Everything around me sends a constant stream of signals and most of them are not pleasant, believe me."

Bill leaned back again but didn't break eye contact. "I am cold, hungry, tired and if I don't use the bathroom soon I will burst. Does this answer your question?"

Dipper felt almost sorry for the demon. The pill would not start working until another hour or so and before that he would suffer a lot more pain from his broken bones. He thought about offering a second one but decided against it. The pills were something Bill wanted and he could use them to get more questions answered. Instead he got to his feet and before he realized what he was doing he held out his hand to Bill to help him up from the sofa. The other reached for it tentatively but before their fingers touched Dipper pulled it back.

"I'll help you to the toilet if you promise me not to sneak a deal into a simple gesture," he said sharply.

Bill laughed despite his struggle to make his legs hold his weight.

"You do realize that you've been the one making deals since you entered the room, Pine Tree."

Dipper felt his face grow hot when he realized what he had just said.

"Don't worry. I already told you I'm not able to make binding deals while in this body", Bill said and winced when his right leg gave way.

Dipper offered his hand again and this time held it out long enough for Bill to take it. He pulled himself up and held on to Dipper's shoulder to steady himself. Up close his face no longer showed any signs of the wounds. A brief thought crossed Dipper's mind. If he could heal that fast maybe his leg wasn't hurt at all. What advantage did he hope to gain from acting like it was? He decided to test him and relaxed the arm holding Bill upright. He felt the other's body tense and was almost pushed to the floor when Bill threw his weight against him and clawed at his shirt. Dipper managed to catch him with his other arm before he could fall. A startled and equally angry face stared up at him. Ok, he was not bluffing. And if so he was incredibly convincing.

"What the hell was that?" Bill snapped. He let go of Dipper and pulled his hand away. His left leg gave enough support and he managed to stand on his own.

"Sorry," Dipper said embarrassed and reached his arms out again. Bill ignored them and limped towards the door. He tested his weight on his right leg again carefully and seemed pleased when he was able to put his weight on it, if only for a little while. He slowly made his way past the staircase and into the hallway with Dipper following only a few steps behind.

"Don't do things like that," he said without turning around. "You almost made me pee myself."

Dipper chuckled but Bill did not seem amused.

"I know you don't trust me," he said finally looking at him. "But there is no point in acting childish. You want me gone as much as I want to leave but if we waste our time by making each other miserable, neither of us will get what we want."

Dipper stared at the demon. He felt embarrassed but also angry for being scolded like that. He was not a child anymore and Bill was just a stupid demon that had shown up at the worst time. He bit back an insult by chewing at his lower lip and turned his face away so Bill couldn't read it. The sooner he was gone the better. He didn't like feeling so helpless.

He remained at the entrance to the hallway and heard Bill shuffle towards the downstairs bathroom. Dipper didn't have to ask how he knew his way around the shack. Bill had been here often enough and not much had changed since his last time.

Dipper turned around with a sigh and saw Mabel looking at him questioningly from the kitchen.

"What did you do?" She asked and Dipper thought she sounded both concerned and amused. Something only his sister could pull off.  
Dipper shrugged and sat beside her at the table. She had put a small pot on the camping stove and was just about to ignite the gas.

"I thought about making some soup, we still haven't had a proper lunch."

"Good idea. Here," Dipper said and took the lighter from her hands. "Let me do that."

She gave him a smile and opened a cupboard full of cans. Dipper lit the fire and turned the valve down to a small flame. 

"It's so strange seeing Bill like that," Mabel said opening a drawer to look for a can opener. "He must be really desperate to come to us in his condition hoping for help."

Dipper watched her open a can of chicken soup and pour it into the pot.  
"Don't get fooled by his appearance," he said "It could be part of his plan. We have to be careful."

"I know. That's why I think neither of us should be alone in a room with him." Mabel said and looked at him intently. "His body is human now but his mind still a demon. Don't let yourself get manipulated."

Dipper sighed. Mabel was right. She had caught him feeling sorry for Bill and that was dangerous. He knew a lot about human emotions and behaviour. Maybe his injuries were real but he knew how to make them work for him.

"I'm just worried, bro," she said and handed him a spoon to stir.  
Dipper wanted to say something to her, something reassuring and hopeful but he couldn't think of anything. Instead he gave her a weak smile and waited for the soup to boil.


	6. VI

When Bill returned to the kitchen Mabel was opening a second can of soup after Dipper had eaten most of the first. It was so much better than dry toast but still nothing compared to Dipper’s cooking skills, according to Dipper. 

“When the power’s back on I will make us the best dinner ever”, he said between spoonfuls of hot soup.

Mabel rolled her eyes. “Only if the food in the fridge hasn’t spoiled until then.”

“There’s nothing edible in there anyway. Just vegetables.”

She wanted to give a snarky reply when she noticed Bill leaning against the door frame and fell silent. He had his arms crossed and despite his pale face and obvious limp he looked menacing. Or was it frightened? Dipper couldn’t place his facial expression, it was still too dark in the room.

Mabel broke the uncomfortable silence first. “Do you need anything?”  
Her voice was calm but not friendly. She poured the contents of the can into the pot and turned up the flame.

Bill remained silent for a few second then turned towards the living room.

Mabel sighed. “Do you want some soup?”

Dipper almost choked. “Mabel!” he hissed. “What are you doing?”

She shot him a glare. “We can’t let him starve. It’s not his body.”

Bill looked back at them hesitant then slowly walked towards the table. Dipper watched him as he dragged his injured leg to the nearest chair and flopped down next to him.

“It’s actually been a while since I’ve eaten anything,” he said. “You humans seem to eat all the time, you know that?”

Mabel set a bowl in front of him and filled it. Bill smelled it curiously and dipped his spoon in. He licked it and flinched when the hot metal burned his tongue.

“Ugh. Why is everything always so painful?”

“Welcome to the human world,” Dipper said sarcastically and earned a frown.

Bill filled the spoon again and let it cool before trying once more. He swallowed and seemed pleased with the taste. Dipper turned back to his own bowl but discovered that he had lost his appetite. Eating a late lunch with his sister and a comatous guy possessed by a demon who was their enemy years ago, seemed like the world's weirdest sitcom plot.  
He listened for the rain outside and realized that it was significantly brighter in the kitchen. The wind had calmed down and the raindrops that had been hitting the windows and walls were now a lazy drizzle.  
He watched Mabel eat in silence, occasionally glancing at Bill who swallowed his soup in huge gulps.

"Looks like we don't have to worry about him starving anymore," Dipper said and marveled at the amount he had eaten in such a short time. "But maybe you should slow down a bit."

Bill gave him a questioning look which suddenly turned into a grimace. He dropped the spoon and without warning bolted into the hallway. Before any of the twins could react he had run back to the bathroom limping on his good leg and slammed the door.

Mabel stared at Bill's empty bowl then at Dipper who leaned back in his chair and rubbed a hand over his eyes.

"Maybe we should-"

"It's ok," Dipper got up. "I'll go."

"No, we agreed not to be alone with him." Mabel insisted and was on her feet instantly. She tried to block his way and put her hands on her hips.

Dipper dodged her. "It's ok, I'll leave the door open." He walked past her and crossed the hallway. When he reached the closed bathroom door he debated to knock then entered without.  
Bill was crouching on the tiled floor one hand clutching the rim of the toilet bowl the other around his throat. A wave of pity washed over Dipper and he stepped inside next to him. As promised he left the door ajar.

"I told you to slow down," he said.

Bill glanced up at him through the corner of his eyes. His face had now lost all its color and his hands were shaking.  
Dipper took a handful of toilet paper, wet it in the small sink and kneeled beside him. He placed a hand on his jaw and turned his face towards him. Bill avoided his eyes but didn't resist when he began to carefully wipe the corners of his mouth.

"It will take a while before you get used to this body," Dipper said, threw the paper into the bowl and flushed.  
"Or you get yourself a healthier one."

Dipper meant that as a joke but the look he got in return gave him chills.  
He saw movement and turned around. Mabel was standing in the door and her gaze wandered over Bill and then to Dipper. 

"Do you need help?" she asked him.

“Yeah, help me get him up.” he said and reached for his arms. Bill shook them off.

“I can walk,” he said in a raspy voice and pushed himself up. It took him a few seconds to find his balance. When Mabel held onto his elbow and led him back to the living room he didn’t object.  
Dipper followed them and then an idea formed in his head.

“Mabel, wait.”

She looked over her shoulder still steadying Bill.

“Why don’t you go upstairs? He can rest on my bed. It’s better than the couch.”

Mabel knitted her eyebrows together when Dipper gave her an encouraging smile.

“Go ahead, I’ll get the blanket.”

Mabel started at him a moment longer then turned around and helped Bill climb the stairs. He was still in bad shape and his leg was giving him trouble but he did his best to hide it.  
Dipper watched them disappear towards their bedroom and went into the living room. He gathered Bill’s blanket and reached for the glass of water when his eyes fell on the black hoodie. Now with Bill gone he wondered what he had been afraid of. It was just a lifeless piece of fabric. He put it on and piled the blanket in one arm and took the glass with the other. When he reached the stairs Mabel was waiting for him.

“What is up with you?” asked in a low voice. “One time you act like a jerk towards Bill and now you let him sleep in your bed?”

Dipper hushed her. “I thought you wanted to look for a way to get rid of him?”

“Yes! But not by killing him!” she hissed.

Dipper gestured her to be quiet. “That’s not what I want either.” He sighed. “Wait for me here. You’ll see.” He ran up the stairs before Mabel could hold him back. He heard her exhale in frustration.

 

Bill sat on his bed and glared at him when he entered. Dipper tossed the blanket on tnto the mattress. His own was only a thin summer blanket and would do nothing to warm him. He stood in front of Bill and pushed the glass in his hands. The demon eyed it suspiciously then took a small sip.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Dipper said and sat beside him. The demon regarded him with a hateful look but didn’t move.

“You did some terrible things in the past and there is no way I can ever trust you,” he continued. “And I will not let you hurt that poor bastard’s body.”

He waited for his words to sink in then took a deep breath and reached for his jeans pocket. “But I think you suffered enough for today.” He shook out two pills from the bottle and offered them on his outstretched hand.

Bill hesitated but eventually took them.  
“You’re very resentful, you know that, Pine Tree?” Bill popped both pills in his mouth and swallowed them with a gulp of water. “But you should be happy. You got your revenge.”

“What do you mean?”

Bill gave him a hard look but stayed silent. He untangled the blanket and put it around his shoulders.

“I know you’re not happy with me here and believe me if I had a choice I wouldn’t be,” he finally said. “But let’s make this as easy and comfortable as possible for both of us, ok?”  
He took Dipper’s silence as agreement and smiled satisfied.

“Oh and one more thing-”. Dipper yelped in surprise when Bill’s hand shot out, grabbed his collar and pulled. His nose was only an inch from Bills and he looked right into his black, seemingly pupilless eyes.

“If you try anything while I’m asleep...,” he whispered and Dipper could feel his breath on his skin. He was too shocked to even think about pulling away. “...I will make sure that my pain becomes yours.”

Dipper pushed at Bill’s shoulders but the demon gripped his hoodie even harder and smirked. He leaned closer despite Dipper’s efforts to keep him away and he shuddered when his cheek touched the side of his face. He felt Bill’s cold skin and his own heart racing in his chest.

“Anyway,” Bill said softly but his voice was loud in Dipper’s ear. “Thanks for the sweater, Pine Tree.”  
He relaxed his hands and Dipper jumped to his feet and took a couple steps back. He was panting and trying to get his pulse under control. He didn’t want Bill to see how scared he was. How stupid of him to let his guard down so easily. How stupid to think that he was vulnerable now that he had a human body. They had to do something before he recovered completely.  
Dipper burst through the door and let it slam behind him. Once outside he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes trying to gather his thoughts. His face was flushed and his hands were shaking with fear and rage. He had to act now. He ran towards the stairs and saw Mabel looking up at him worriedly.

“What happened, bro?”

He took a deep breath and managed to walk down calmly. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

Mabel crossed the living room after him and inhaled sharply when they stopped in front of the old vending machine. She stared open mouthed as Dipper punched in the combination.

“So that’s why you wanted Bill to sleep upstairs?” She held onto his arm and flinched when the door behind opened with a loud hiss.

“Yes, he doesn’t need to know we’re looking for the journals. Also the pills I gave him have severe fatigue as a side effect,” he explained and watched Mabel’s eyes grow large. “And with the state he is in now I hope he sleeps long enough for us to get the journal.”

“You drugged him?” Her face showed a mixture of disbelief, fear and anger. “Are you crazy? What if that affects his body?”

“That’s the point,” he shrugged and stepped into the darkness.

 

The small space behind the vending machine opened into a long flight of stairs that led to the bunker under the shack. Beyond the first two steps Dipper could only make out darkness and the damp smell of withered concrete. Not for the first time today he wished for a flashlight. He made a mental note to buy one when they were in town then he halted. They wanted to call and ask their great uncles for help but there were safe and Bill was dangerous. There were more than enough of his family members involved already and he couldn’t risk the safety of two more. He would take it upon himself to fix this. As soon as they had found the journals everything would be alright again soon.  
He asked Mabel to get the lighter and two candles from the kitchen. They closed the vending machine behind them and lit them. The light didn’t reach far but it was better than nothing. They walked down and their steps echoed eerily in the dark. The smell of wet earth filled their noses and when they reached the bottom they could see what was left of the bunker. Multiple large puddles reflected the soft light from the candles. Faint dripping of water could be heard all around them.

“That must be from the storm,” Mabel said and stepped onto the soft ground.

“I don’t think so,” Dipper said. “It’s pretty far below ground, it would take years for the water to reach it.”

He followed after Mabel and they reached another door. It had rusted and hung awkwardly on its hinges. Dipper pulled at it and it gave a loud squeak as it opened. He hoped they were too far away for Bill to hear. The gap was only wide enough for one person. Dipper squeezed through and was just about to make room for Mabel when the ground under his right foot gave way. He pulled it away instinctively and tried to regain his balance when the soft earth shifted under his weight. He cried out and reached for something to hold on to. His hands found nothing and he fell to his knees. His candle went out with a hiss and he was engulfed by darkness. He looked for Mabel and saw the light of her candle through the gap in the door.

“Dipper! Are you ok?” 

He saw her make her way towards him and wanted to answer but he felt the ground underneath him descended into a slope and his legs started to slip. He clawed at the mud with his bare hands but it gave way almost instantly. He skidded backwards and one of his feet splashed into icy water.   
He saw Mabel’s shape coming towards him and wanted to warn her. He kicked at the water and only managed to slip away further.

“Watch out!” he yelled.

“Dipper! Hold on!”

She put the light down and reached for his hand. Dipper lunged forward. His feet dug into the mud but before he lost traction his hand closed over Mabels.  
For a fraction of a second he felt relieved then his muddy fingers slipped away and he was about to fall back into cold, wet blackness. Then he felt a hand close over his wrist and pull at his sleeve.

“Slowly now,” Mabel said out of breath and carefully started to pull him up. He managed to dig his feet into the soft earth and used his knees and elbows to drag himself towards the light. At last he swung his legs over the edge of the slope and sat up panting.

“Thanks,” he said after calming down a little. “What happened here?”

Mabel held the candle up and gasped. At the end of the muddy slope a giant body of water spread out into the darkness. There was no of telling how deep it was or how far it reached. In the weak light Dipper could make out giant shapes in the water. Small islands made of rocks and pieces of concrete or metal. He felt his stomach twist and turned away.

After they defeated Bill - or so they had thought - the portal had disintegrated and the construction around it was destroyed. There had been no more supernatural phenomenons in Gravity Falls since then so there was no need to retrieve the journals. Dipper had always just assumed they would be around here somewhere and if they really needed them again, they could always look for them behind the vending machine. Now that he saw the damage time and ground water had done over the years he was sure they were gone for good.

“What do we do now?” Mabel asked anxiously reading Dipper’s thoughts.

“I don’t know,” he said faintly and the cold from his wet clothes seemed to spread.

“We’ll figure out something else,” she suggested trying to get their hopes up. “We’re the mystery twins, remember?”

Dipper gave her a weak smile that she barely saw in the dim light. She helped him to his feet and wrapped her arms around him. “It will be alright. Don’t worry.”  
She let him go and picked up the candle. “Let’s get back before Bill wakes up.”

 

The rain had finally stopped and a few rays of evening sunshine found their way between patches of clouds and bathed the meadow behind the shack in a warm light. The air was heavy with the smell of wet grass and already carrying the chill of nighttime.  
Mabel lay on the old sofa on the porch her legs dangling over the armrest. Dipper sat on the floor beside her and for the second time today put on a fresh pair of socks.  
They had come back from their little adventure exhausted and covered in mud. Dipper had wanted nothing more than to take a hot shower but with no electricity he had to scrub his arms and legs with ice cold water. Bill had been completely oblivious to their absence and didn’t stir when Mabel sneaked into the room to get fresh clothes while their mud caked ones soaked in the bathtub.

“I’ve been thinking”, she said after a long silence in which they warmed themselves in the setting sun. “We should call gruncle Ford tomorrow and ask him about Bill. I mean he’s the one who knew him best and he wrote the journals.”

“Mabel, I don’t think we should get them involved.”

“Why not? They had to deal with him more often than we did.”

“I know but,” Dipper sighed. “But without the journals or the portal there is nothing they can do either. Also…” He held his breath and said what had been on his mind for the last hour. “What if Bill’s deal is about any or both of them?”

He felt Mabel’s gaze at the back of his head but didn’t want to turn around. “Maybe Bill wants revenge on all of us and he’s just waiting for them to get back. To have us in one place.”  
He waited for Mabel to say something, to tell him how crazy he was for even considering this but she stayed quiet and that told Dipper everything. He put his head on his knees and watched the sun slip behind the trees.

“Maybe we should just ask him what he wants,” he suggested and Mabel’s breath hitched.

“Don’t even think about it!” she snapped. “He will trick you into saying or doing something and then it’s all over.”

“It’s already over. He’s just playing us,” he said quietly.

“No, it isn’t. We’re still here and we have a few days before Grunkle Stan and Ford return. We just have to stay positive.”

“How can you be so optimistic? Have you been snacking on smile-dip again?”

Mabel laughed. “No, but we haven’t really tried anything except getting stuck in the mud and we can’t give up already.”

“So what’s your plan?”

She gave him a wide smile. “You are the smart one, bro. I’m just the optimistic one, remember?”

Dipper rolled his eyes but managed to shrug off his despair and think about their situation rationally. They couldn’t hurt Bill unless they wanted to risk the life of an innocent man. Also Bill would just get another body. They still didn’t know if he was telling the truth about the mindscape and Dipper was very worried to find out. He was feeling sleepy already. If he got hold of his or Mabel’s body … He dismissed the thought, it was too horrible. Maybe they should warn their great uncles anyway. Just in case something happened to them.  
How would they handle this? They had outsmarted the demon once and there was no way they could do it again. Dipper wished they had the journals and the thought led to another he couldn’t quite grasp and before it took shape it slipped away. He realized he had closed his eyes and jerked his head up. He couldn’t fall asleep now. Not with Bill so close. He would have to stay awake all night but his body was aching for a bed already.  
He stretched his sore limbs and got up to look for caffeine. They had a coffee machine but it was useless now and Soos had taken all the energy drinks with him. He took a lukewarm soda from the fridge and hoped its high sugar content would last him a few more hours.  
The warm light from the sunset was quickly draining away and he lit the candles in the kitchen. It was the perfect atmosphere for telling ghost stories but with a demon in the house he didn’t need any to worry about long, dark nights in the woods.


	7. VII

Mabel sat with him at the table playing a game of cards and munching on the rest of the cookies. After locking up the shack and making sure Bill was still asleep and breathing she had decided to stay awake with her brother. They had discussed their situation for a long time but had found no solution. Dipper was devastated by the loss of the journals but as long as Mabel had hope he would not give up, he promised himself. It was now close to midnight and Dipper noticed she had gotten very quiet in the last hour and was close to nodding off. They had to sleep eventually.

“Why don’t you go to bed?” he asked her after she had lost another round for lack of concentration.

“But what about Bill?” she asked surprised and shuffled the cards again. “What if he takes over my body?” she asked and voiced Dippers greatest fear.

He had thought about this frequently in the last hours and had come to a conclusion. “I think Bill can only take over a body if you let him.” He thought about how he himself had been tricked into agreeing to a deal and then about the accident. “Or if your mind can’t fight back any longer. He can’t possess you if you are only asleep.”

Mabel thought about it. “But he could still enter my dreams in the mindscape and then what?”  
Dipper shrugged. “If he bothers you just fight back. Remember how you did it last time. It might be his dimension but it’s still your mind. Imagine something terrible like … a fire breathing unicorn or-”

“Or an army of pelicans!”

Dipper laughed. “Whatever works for you, Mabel.”

She smiled at him but then her expression darkened. “What if he does something else while we’re asleep?”

“Don’t worry, I will stay up and keep watch over him.”

“Really? Aren’t you tired? What if you fall asleep too?”

“I won’t.” he insisted. “Now get your blanket.”

Mabel got up but hesitated. “Wouldn’t it be easier to be in the same room? You could watch Bill and me at the same time.”

Dipper gaped at her.

“… Also I wouldn’t have to sleep on the sofa, it’s scratchy.”

Dipper scoffed. “You would rather sleep in the same room with a demon that can enter your dreams and manipulate your mind, than sleep in an uncomfortable bed?”

“I need my beauty sleep! And you said yourself that I don’t have to worry about anything. Maybe he told the truth and can’t even go into the mindscape?”

“Mabel, your sleepiness is talking.”

“I am so very tired, bro!”

Dipper chuckled. “I know. Let me think, ok?” He paced the room for a few minutes trying to come up with a better idea but he kept losing track. His brain had gone to mush and gave up.

“Alright,” he said finally. “If you start having nightmares I will know and I can wake you up. And don’t forget about the ...what was it? Albatross?”

“Pelicans!” she corrected him and walked up the stairs with one of the candles to light her way.

Dipper blew out the others and picked one up as well careful not to spill the hot wax. Mabel went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and braid her hair while he opened the door to the bedroom as quietly as possible. He was greeted by complete darkness. The candle in his hand flickered momentarily and he was prepared to be attacked by Bill and braced himself for a fight but nothing happened. Despite his exhaustion his nerves were on edge and he willed himself to calm down. The door swung open wider and the tiny flame threw faint shadows onto the walls. Through the window he could see the cloudy sky and the occasional star but the room itself was too dark to make out more than just bulky shapes. He crossed to Mabel’s bed and put the candle on her nightstand then turned quickly to his own. If it was empty he would run for the bathroom, get Mabel and … and what? Go where? Into the forest at night? Into town on foot?  
A tight knot formed in his throat. The blanket was still there but it was bunched up and could be empty. He wanted to pull it off the bed when he heard Bill’s soft breathing. The relief he felt was enormous. He took a couple of deep breaths and tried to make out his shape. He was curled up in the upper half of his bed, his back to him, the blanket snug around his ears. Only a patch of light hair was visible in the dim candle light.  
Dipper heard Mabel enter the room and gestured that it was alright for her to come in. She tiptoed inside, closed the door silently and walked up to him then placed her candle next to his bed. The two light brightened the room enough for Dipper to keep an eye both on Bill and his sister.

“He looks so innocent,” Mabel whispered as he looked down at the sleeping man. “Are you sure you want to stay up?”

Dipper led her to her bed and she slipped under the covers.

“I will stop worrying about him when he’s gone,” Dipper said quietly. He pushed their clothes from a nearby chair and moved it next to Mabel’s bed. He angled it as to have a good view on both of them.

“If you want you can sleep in my bed. It will be like when we were young,” Mabel suggested but Dipper waved it off.

“Good night, Mabel,” he whispered and tucked one leg under him to make the hard chair more comfortable. He would be sitting here for a while. “Don’t forget about the bird army, ok?”

She yawned and pulled the blanket around her shoulders. “Pelicans, bro. Good night.”

It wasn’t long before her movements ceased and her breathing was as even and calm as Bill’s. Dipper put his head in his hands and yawned. By force of habit he looked for the digital clock on his nightstand then remembered that the power was still out. This was going to be the longest night of his life. He forced himself to sit up straight and tried to think of a way to keep him awake. He thought about the journals but that only depressed him. When he steered his thoughts to Bill he got scared and angry. He searched his brain for a happy thought and landed on Wendy. He hadn’t thought about her in years. After the incident with the portal their visits to the Mystery Shack had become fewer and the connection they had built over the summer was lost. They had promised to keep in touch but their emails and texts were no more than birthday congratulations and holiday wishes. The last picture she sent was of her and her boyfriend when they had moved to a city far away from Gravity Falls. If only he had been a little older when they met. A few years difference was no big deal once you were in your twenties. He thought about writing her but then recalled his broken phone. She wouldn’t remember him anyway. That’s enough happy thoughts, Dipper concluded bitterly and leaned his head on the back of the chair.  
After he had started college he had met a few nice girls but it had never lasted more than a few months. It usually started out great and he cared a lot but he was never sure about either of them. Mabel had tried to set him up with each of her friends but it was a futile mission. He was pleasant with them but cold, talked to them nicely but kept his distance. He always let them down gently and none of them held a grudge against him afterwards but he acquired a reputation of being a loner.  
Dipper felt his head slip and jerked forward. Had he been sleeping? How much time had passed? He scanned the room but nothing had changed. The candles still burned dimly but the flame on Bill’s side was significantly smaller. Or was he imagining this? It was difficult to keep his mind focused. He listened for their breathing and relaxed again when he heard it. His pulse picked up speed nonetheless. He had promised Mabel to watch over here and he had nodded off. If Bill had needed a chance to attack them when they were most vulnerable he had missed it. The shape under the blanket hadn’t even moved. Slowly Dipper began to doubt that he was here to hurt them. Or maybe he was just waiting for his body to be fully functional before sneaking up behind them. Maybe Bill was just as exhausted as him and caught up on the sleep his body needed. Dipper envied him. He got to his feet and strode around the room. If he sat down now he would risk falling asleep.

After what felt like an hour he decided to get something to drink. He had debated with himself for a very long time now but if he didn’t want to suffer more than he did already he had to leave the room. Neither Bill nor Mabel had moved much and he was sure they were both fast asleep but he still didn’t feel comfortable with leaving his sister in the presence of a demon. He would leave the door open, race to the kitchen and get a soda. He could be back in under one minute and if he was quiet neither of them would ever know he’d been gone.  
He didn’t want to take any candles from the room so he took the lighter Mabel had left on her nightstand and stepped into the hallway. Once outside he looked back and when he was sure they had not stirred made his way downstairs.  
The tiny flame of the lighter did little to light his surroundings but it was enough for him not to run into furniture. The creaking of wood and his own shadow startled him more than once and he was glad to finally ignite the candles on the kitchen table. He opened the fridge and his head shot around. A floorboard squeaked over his head. He listened for the sound again but could only make out the rushing of blood in his own ears. His pulse picked up speed and he loathed himself for leaving Mabel. How could he ever forgive himself if something happened to her?  
He headed back to the stairs and looked up. His throat tightened and his heart skipped a beat. The hallway was dark except for the faint glow off the night sky through the open bedroom door. Someone had blown out the candles.  
For a seemingly endless second Dipper was not able to move. Even his thoughts felt sluggish and endlessly slow. When he finally willed his legs to obey him he raced up the stairs without a plan and only Mabel on his mind.  
He reached the landing and bolted for the door when a black shape dispatched itself from the shadows and blocked his way. He tried to stop but slammed into it and felt a pair of hands grab his arms. A scream formed in his lungs but was immediately muffled when cold fingers pressed over his mouth. Dipper was only capable of one coherent thought: Bill had waited for him to let his guard down and had set up a trap. He thrashed blindly at his attacker and clawed at the suffocating hand.

"Calm down!" Bill's voice in the darkness was strained with the effort of keeping him still.  
Dipper ripped his hand away and threw his arm around hitting something hard with his elbow. Bill gasped and his hold relaxed. He pushed him aside and sprinted for Mabel's bed.

"Mabel? Mabel! Are you ok?!" For a horrifying moment he thought she wouldn't move then she turned around. He could see her confused face in the faint moonlight and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she was unhurt.

"What's wrong?" she asked sleepily and her eyes searched the room.

Dipper turned back towards the door convinced that Bill would be right behind him. The room and hallway were empty.

"Did something happen?" he asked and failed to keep his voice calm.

"How should I know?"

"Did Bill do something to you?"

"What? No." She sat up and tried to fully wake up. "What's going on?"

Dipper leaned back. His breath was laboured from the fight and there was a weird tingling sensation in his right forearm but Mabel was unharmed and that was most important.

"Dipper? Where's Bill?" She had seen the empty bed with the blanket tossed aside and Dipper felt her tense. "Why are the candles out?"

"I don't know. Stay here, ok?" He left her side before she was able to protest and peered out into the hallway.  
His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could see the shape of Bill sitting at the top of the stairs.

“What are you doing? Why are you up?” Dipper asked him and his head turned to him.

“I could ask you the same, Pine Tree”, Bill mumbled and wiped one hand over his mouth.

Dipper walked back to Mabel who looked at him with large eyes. “It’s nothing,” Dipper said before she started asking questions. “Go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you up.”

“What about Bill?”

“I will see what he wants, don’t worry about him.”

She gave him a sceptic look but lied down again. “Can you leave the door open?”

“Of course. If you need anything just call for me, ok?”

“Be careful. And don’t make any deals,” she yawned and turned his back to him again.

Dipper huffed and made his way towards Bill. The other had not moved but he felt his glare on him. He held his hand out but Bill made no effort to take it. Dipper rolled his eyes even though it was too dark to be seen.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he growled and pulled on his arm.

“Will you throw me down the stairs?” Bill’s voice was dripping with hate.

“If you don’t let me help you, I will,” Dipper hissed and finally managed to get the demon onto his feet.

He led him down the stairs into the candlelit kitchen and took a seat opposite him. “What do you want?”

Bill grinned. “So you are finally listening to my deal?”

Dipper narrowed his eyes. “Don’t piss me off!” he growled. “I’m too tired for your games.” He looked closely at his face and saw streaks of blood on the corner of his mouth. “You’re bleeding.”

Bill wiped at it with the back of his hand and held his gaze. “You punched me in the face,” he said emphasizing each word.

“Yeah, because you attacked me!” Dipper said remembering and rubbed his elbow. 

“No, I didn’t. I tried to keep you from freaking out.”

“By sneaking up on me?!”

Bill threw up his arms angrily and leaned closer. “I woke up and saw you leave so I went after you.”

Dipper’s breath hitched. “Why?”

“Because I’m secretly planning to kill you, take over the Mystery Shack and make a fortune.”

Bill’s face was completely serious for a full two seconds before he smirked and Dipper was taken aback by the unexpected joke.

“Don’t look like this, Pine Tree. I’m just kidding... I would get more money by selling the property.”

This time he laughed and Dipper was lost for words. A few hours sleep did wonders to one’s personality. But he would not be fooled. Bill had plans for them and he would find out what they were.

“Why did you put out the candles then?” Dipper asked and Bill’s face lost its humor.

“Because it’s a fire hazard.”

Dipper kept his eyes on him waiting for further explanation.

Bill groaned. “What do you want to hear, kid? How should I know you were running around in the dark? I already explained that I followed you. I didn’t want to leave your sister alone with unsupervised flames.”

Dipper scoffed. “So you’re telling me you did that because you were concerned with Mabel’s well-being? Yeah right.”

“Believe what you want but she was the only one who’d been treating me decently all day.”

“You don’t deserve to be treated that way,” Dipper spat and immediately regretted it. Bill’s features hardened and he fixated him with a vengeful stare.

“Listen, Pine Tree. If I had a choice I would be happily floating around in the mindscape right now but thanks to you and your family I ended up in the wrong dimension when the portal closed and now I can’t go back." Dipper had expected an outburst but Bill's voice was calm. "If you wanted to punish me for what I did a decade ago you did brilliantly.” He breathed deeply. “I need your help and please...please stop tormenting me.”

Dipper made a face at him. With Bill sounding so desperate his anger evaporated. He tried to keep in mind that he was a master in manipulating the people around him to his advantage, he was a demon after all, but what did he hope to gain by revealing his weakness so readily?

“How do you expect us to help you?” Dipper asked. "And why would we?"

Bill tilted his head. "Think about it, Pine Tree. If you help me get back into the mindscape I will stop bothering you in this dimension."

"And start messing with us in our dreams?" Dipper scoffed. "You really thought we would agree to that?"

Bill shrugged. "That's the great thing about deals. I'll promise that you will never see me  
again."

Dipper's eyes grew wide. "That's what you want us to agree on? I thought you couldn't make any real deals in this body?"

"I can't. Look... It's a little more complicated.

Dipper crossed his arms over his chest. "I will not just take your word for it."

"But you will also not agree on a genuine deal, am I right?"

Dipper huffed. "We will never get rid of you, is that what you're saying?"

Bill grinned at him. "It's not so bad being human when you are not in constant pain," he said flexing his leg without effort. "Or peeing blood, or throwing up. I think I'm getting the hang of it. Even my brain's started to filter all the unwanted information. I could stay like this for years."

Dipper groaned. With their luck they could be stuck with Bill for the rest of their lives. So much for their summer vacation.

"So... theoretically... how would you go back to the mindscape? Why do you need us?"

"Well, I can't open the portal by myself."

Dipper's stomach dropped. "Portal?"

"You know," Bill rolled his eyes dramatically. "The giant machine in the basement with the buttons and lights and stuff."

Dipper gaped at him. Suddenly he couldn't speak. Time seemed to slow down. Bill didn't know the portal was destroyed, he thought. He was under the impression that they could just open it up and he would be back in his dimension. He could not tell him the truth. What would he do if he found out they were useless to him?

"You in there, Pine Tree?"

Dipper wiped his sweaty hands on his shorts and willed his racing thoughts to slow.

Bill raised an eyebrow. He had gotten hold off one of the candles and warmed his hands on it. "So what do you think?"

"I'm thinking that I will go to bed now", Dipper said and pushed his chair back. "I'll have a clearer head tomorrow."

"Great, want me to get your blanket to the sofa?"

Dipper gave him a meaningful look and shook his head. "No, Bill, I will bring your blanket."

"What?! But the sofa is so scratchy!"

Dipper smiled at how much he sounded like Mabel. He blew out the candles and clicked the lighter then walked upstairs with Bill on his heels.

"That's not fair. You gave me the bed," he whispered as not to wake Mabel.

"See? I didn't treat you as horribly as you said," Dipper replied when they entered the bedroom and shoved the blanket in his arms.

Without turning around he took off his shorts, socks and t-shirt, got into bed and pulled the covers over his shoulders. When he didn't hear Bill leave he cracked open an eye and saw him standing where he had left him. His face was obscured by darkness but he felt the angry glare nonetheless. Dipper sighed and pulled up his knees creating some space on the mattress.

"If you touch me with your cold limbs I will kick you."

Bill stayed motionless and Dipper thought he had said something to make him angry again but then he stepped closer. He put his blanket in the corner he had been offered and curled up in it. He was careful not to touch Dipper's legs but he was as tall as him and took up almost half the bed.  
Dipper moved his pillow further up to make more room for himself and closed his eyes.  
The last thing that went through his head before he fell asleep was that they would not be able to fix the portal and Bill could never go back. If the demon found out about this they were doomed. But for now he seemed at peace and Dipper wondered what he had gotten himself into.


	8. VIII

For the first two second of consciousness Dipper wasn't sure what had woken him. Then he remembered a sound. Outside. The distinct slam of a car door. He sat up and listened. Had Stand and Ford come back already?  
He rubbed his eyes and tried to focus. The sun was high in the sky and has turned the bedroom uncomfortably warm. How long had he been sleeping? It had to be noon!  
He kicked the hot blanket off his legs then noticed another one bundled up in the corner of his bed. The memories of last night rushed into his head and his heart jumped into his throat. Mabel's bed was empty and there was no sign of Bill.  
He leapt off the bed and threw the door open.

"Mabel?" His voice was raspy with sleep and he cleared his throat before yelling a second time.  
No answer.  
He sprinted down the stairs past the empty kitchen, through the living room and was about to burst into the gift shop when he heard a voice and slowed. All he could tell was that it belonged to a man but it wasn't Bill and he couldn't make out the words. When her heard Mabel answer he calmed down a little but the tone of her voice worried him. He peeked through a gap and started. Two policemen were standing in the entrance. One of them looked at Mabel over the rim of his sunglasses and nodded. The other looked around the shop curiously and seemed amused by the overpriced t-shirts.  
The first gestured to his partner and they went back to their car leaving his sister to breathe a sigh of relief.

"What was that?" Dipper burst into the shop when the door had closed behind them.

Mabel jumped in surprise but relaxed when she saw it was just him.

"I'm glad you're up." She gave him a worried look. "What happened last night?"

"What were there police doing here?"

Mabel inhaled deeply and gestured her brother to do the same.

"Alright," she said. "They wanted to know if we knew anything about the car accident that happened yesterday. The driver is missing." She raised a meaningful eyebrow. "And they are worried he's running around the woods due to shock."

"So? What did they want from us?"

"They just asked to inform them if we see him."

"Did you?"

Mabel huffed. "Of course. I told them a demon possessed his body, changed it into a Hugo Boss model and is now sitting on our porch drinking tea."

Dipper snorted. "Ok. So they're not suspecting that we have anything to do with the accident but someone will miss the guy, right?"

Mabel shrugged. "Maybe. They said they want to organize a search party for him in the afternoon."

"Great," Dipper groaned. "We should add that to our mystery tours."

"I don't think they expect to find him alive though," Mabel said. "They said with the storm last night and the condition of the wreck there was little hope."

"We should charge people extra for that."

"Stop it, bro. You sound like Grunkle Stan, it's scary." She looked him over and grinned. "You even started to dress like him."

Dipper was suddenly aware that he was only wearing his boxers and laughed.

"Get back to work! I'm not paying you to make fun of me!" he said giving his best impression of their great uncle and went to change his clothes.

"Hey Dipper!" Mabel called after him "The power's back on if you haven't noticed already. So you can cook us lunch later!"

Dipper looked at the clock in the kitchen and saw that it was almost one in the afternoon. He couldn't remember when he had ever slept so long, he was usually a morning person even in college.  
He got his clothes from the bedroom floor and folded both blankets neatly. He thought about taking Bill's to the living room then put it on the foot of his bed instead. Both their gruncles kept their rooms locked while they were away so he could not just sleep there. They would have to discuss this later.  
He took a quick shower and changed into a fresh t-shirt. The hoodie he left on a chair. It looked like it was going to be a warm afternoon. Since it was too late for breakfast he decided to start lunch earlier. He went back to Mabel who was helping a customer with directions. It was Monday so not many tourists would visit today but that was fine with Dipper, he didn't feel like running the shack today.

"Just take this route. It will take a little longer but the road is better," she explained pointing at the map in front of her. The customer thanked her and left.

She turned to Dipper and sighed. "Looks like the rain made some of the roads impassable. The one into town is still good but the smaller ones leading here are closed."

"Grunkle Stan will not be happy about it," Dipper said "But it also means less work and more vacation for us. So what do you want for lunch?"

Mabel considered then shrugged. "Whatever you feel like, bro. But add something liquid for Bill or he'll get sick again."

"Why are we wasting our food on him? He can't even handle soup. Where is he anyway?"

"Don't be mean. He's out on the porch."

"Yes, you said that...," Dipper remembered "...the Hugo Boss model."

Mabel's cheeks went red and she was suddenly very busy with sorting through the bumper stickers near the counter. "He took a shower and asked for a shirt," she said quietly her ears burning. Dipper was about to tease her some more when she gave him a sharp look. "You gave him your sweater!"

"What?"

"Don’t look at me like that. I remember you wearing it after breakfast but Bill was wearing it when he woke up and- " she suddenly stopped and stared at him in disbelief. "...And you were sleeping in the same bed!"

Dipper wasn't sure who was blushing harder now. Mabel’s cheeks were still pink but his own were starting to heat up and he had to avert his eyes.

"Why was he sleeping in your bed?" Mabel insisted, her voice now between amusement and demanding immediate answers. "What happened last night?"

"Nothing! What? Mabel! I was tired but he didn't want to sleep on the couch." Dipper struggled for words. "And he wanted the sweater because he was cold."

"You know, bro," she said after a while looking at him intently. "Sometimes you are really weird."

Dipper thought about telling her about Bill's deal but decided it was not safe. If the demon overheard them there was no telling if what he would do. It would have to wait.  
Mabel opened her mouth to ask something or mock him further but then the door opened a family of four entered.

"Excuse me, could anyone tell us how to get back to the highway? All the roads are closed."

"Sure thing. You have a map?" Mabel said cheerfully and Dipper took the chance to slip back to the living room. If Grunkle Stan was here he would scold them for giving directions without selling them something first.  
Without thinking much about it he walked towards the back porch. He expected Bill to sit on the old sofa but he was not there. He was about to turn back and start preparing lunch when he noticed an empty mug sitting on the boards near the steps. Mabel had said something about Bill drinking tea so where was he now? He went to pick it up and bring it inside when something caught his eye. He looked over at the meadow that stretched to the edge of the forest and saw Bill sitting in the grass with his back to him. Dipper left the mug and walked over.  
The bright midday light blinded him when he left the shade of the roof and felt hot on his arms and shoulders. The grass was dry but the ground beneath was still soft from the rain.  
He didn’t try to conceal his presence but Bill didn’t turn around when he approached. He was wearing one of Dipper's old faded shirts. It was no longer blue but rather gray and had several small holes at the seams.  
Dipper noticed his hair was clean now and a little messy from being freshly washed. He imagined it to be warm from the sun but still wet at the roots.  
Bill sat with his legs crossed and his arms behind him for support. His eyes were closed but he seemed highly focused on something outside of Dipper’s grasp.

“Did you sleep well, Pine Tree?” he asked when the other’s shadow fell on him.

Dipper didn’t answer. He spotted the tiniest smirk on Bill’s lips and was afraid anything he said would be used to make him feel embarrassed for sharing his bed. He would not play into his hands. It was enough that Mabel had made fun of him already.

“What are you doing sitting on the wet ground? You’ll get my pants dirty.”

Bill’s eyebrows knitted together and he struggled to keep his eyes shut. “I’m enjoying the sun. So could you maybe move a step or … a mile thank you.”

To spite him Dipper sat down in front of him looking for the driest patch of dirt. He made a note to himself to put on shoes before he went outside. He had only packed socks for a week and he couldn’t ruin them all in two days. When he looked at Bill he was glaring at him. His irises were dark but inspected more closely showed flecks of gold in the sunlight. Dipper ignored his stare and leaned back inhaling the warm summer air. He could smell the trees, the grass underneath him and the faint trace of moist earth in the shade of the forest. A soft breeze cooled his skin and pulled on their clothes. It was nice sitting here instead of the porch and Dipper felt his tension slip away. He knew Bill was still waiting for him to accept his deal but before he made a decision or would tell him the truth about the portal he had nothing to be afraid of. For the first time since he arrived at the Shack he was comfortable in the demon's presence. He yawned and met Bill's eyes. The other was still staring at him but no longer as hateful. Dipper's eyebrows went up when he noticed.

"What?"

"It's nice seeing you relaxed for a change," Bill said.

Dipper wasn't sure if he was being mocked or complimented and then too much time passed to reply so he said nothing. It gave him a strange feeling of vulnerability but it was not entirely unpleasant.

"How's your leg?" he asked trying to shift Bill's attention away from his face.

"Not too bad, but bones just don't heal as fast as flesh." He lifted his shirt a couple of inches and revealed smooth skin with only the faintest trace of the large bruises Dipper had seen the day before. "I finally got the internal bleeding under control," he said proudly.

"What about the brain damage?" Dipper asked dryly trying to push the thought about what Mabel had said earlier out of his head.

"Just a minor skull fracture and a simple haemorrhage. Nothing to worry about."

"Great."

Bill frowned. "Do you speak anything except sarcasm?"

"Well, I took Latin in college."

Bill rolled his eyes. A dragonfly passed by his ear and landed on a nearby dandelion. Its wings glistened red and green in the light and Bill was momentarily distracted.

"I'm gonna make lunch." Dipper said getting to his feet and dusting off his jeans. "You think you can keep it down this time?"

Bill watched the dragonfly take off again and disappear behind the trees. "That depends on your cooking, Pine Tree."

"Very funny." Dipper glared at Bill but couldn't hide the hint of a smile.  
He walked back to the shack disregarding Bill's grin and even managed to avoid the largest puddles. When he picked up the empty mug he turned back to the demon who was now lying on his back, eyes closed with his arms behind his head. He would be hot and sunburnt when he got back inside. Dipper wondered how his body kept up with all that sensory input.  
But Bill was not an ordinary person. If he adjusted as fast as he healed he was probably already bored with everyday sounds and smells. He would also be fully recovered soon and then they needed a plan.  
Dipper put a pot of water on the stove to boil then headed for the gift shop to talk to Mabel. He hoped to find her alone but there were two customers, a man and women presumably in their forties, at the register complaining about the delay of their vacation. When Dipper walked in Mabel was in the middle of an elaborate apology for yesterday's weather.

"I already told you," she pleaded. "I don't know when the roads will be fixed. There's an inn you can stay at. I can give you directions."

The man was about to vent some more then they spotted Dipper leaning against the counter his arms crossed threateningly.

"Can I interest you in on of our mystery tours?" He asked with an exaggerated smile. "The forest is full of supernatural monsters right after a storm. Also there's a guy on the loose who snapped after a car crash and is running around with an axe looking for people who complain about the weather."

The couple stared at him and the anger slipped from their faces. They kept their eyes on the floor and hurried out the door.

"Thanks, bro," Mabel said and dropped her head on the counter. "These were like the fifteenth grumpy customers today. All they want to do is complain to me."

"Let's put up the closed sign." Dipper suggested.

Mabel stretched her arms and sighed. "I wanted to but I think Grunkle Stan hid it."

Dipper laughed. "Then we'll make our own. And we put up a second one by the road."

"Yes!" Mabel squealed. "I'll draw them!" She dug through the boxes under the register and found two sheets of paper and a sharpie. Dipper watched her print the letters in concentration then added a sad looking cat on one and a crying squirrel on the other sign.

"Mabel, these signs are depressing."

"What? No! People need to see that we are sorry we're closed."

"No they don't. I mean... Are you?"

"Hmm... I'll add a sun in the corner if that makes you feel better."

Dipper sighed in defeat.

They pinned one of the sheets to the door then walked to the fork in the road and tacked the second one to the arrow pointing towards the shack. Dipper glanced back to see if he could spot Bill but the shack and adjoining trees obstructed his view.

"We have to take it off before Grunkle Stan comes back or we're in trouble," Mabel said.

"Oh yeah? And what will he say about the demon occupying the house?"

Mabel hummed. “We still have five days before they get back. A lot can happen in that time.”

“We could all be dead.”

“What’s up with you, bro?” Mabel said and her face showed true concern. “Ever since Bill showed up you’re so … bleak. You were sarcastic before but this?!”

Dipper opened his mouth to reply but the words wouldn’t come. Wasn’t it normal to be worried when an immortal, all-knowing, more or less all-powerful being intruded your home?

“The sooner we get rid of him, the sooner I can enjoy our vacation,” he said walking back to the shack not daring to look at his sister. He didn’t like when she used that motherly tone on him. It was not like her usual upbeat self and it was his fault for making her worry.

“Also I haven’t had a real meal in a while.”

“Then maybe I should do the cooking,” Mabel suggested jokingly but Dipper heard the apprehension in her voice.

“We still have time,” Dipper said to try and calm both of them. “As long as he doesn’t know that the portal is destroyed we have an advantage.”

She walked beside him quietly for a while then grabbed his arm and held onto it. Dipper let her but was surprised when she suddenly pulled him to a stop. She couldn’t meet his eyes but her fingers clasped his sleeve tightly.

“I told Bill we can’t open the portal.”

Dipper felt his blood run cold. He looked to the meadow. Bill wasn’t there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Fanart by Damare](http://damaredesigns.tumblr.com/post/120571294585/fanart-for-the-newest-chapter-of-sleeping-through)


	9. IX

“What were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry!”

Dipper grabbed Mabel’s shoulders and fought the urge to shake her. “What exactly did you tell him?”

Mabel pressed her lips together and her eyes avoided Dipper’s.

“Mabel! What did he say? Did he threaten you?”

She shook her head.

“Then what happened?”

Mabel swallowed back tears. “I just wanted to make conversation, he looked so lost when he woke up, you were still sleeping and he asked me for more tea and-.” She took a deep breath and steadied her voice. “I asked him what he wanted from us and he mentioned the portal.”

“And?”

Mabel flinched at the harsh tone and he loosened his grip.

“I told him it was destroyed years ago.”

“How did he react?” Dipper looked over his shoulder afraid the demon would just pop up behind him. “Was he mad?”

Mabel shook her head again. “No, he was … disappointed maybe… and he got really quiet, it was a bit scary but then he just got up and went outside. I haven’t seen him since.”

Dipper willed away the lump in his throat and inhaled the warm air. He had been talking to Bill just minutes ago and he had seemed so … normal. How well could he hide his real feelings? Maybe he had had different plans all along. It would not be the first time he was lying to them.

“Why did you tell him, Mabel?”

She gulped. “I don’t know. He was so nice to me and he was so desperate to get back.”

Dipper strengthened his grip again and Mabel looked at him. “Don’t be fooled by his appearance or how nicely he talks to you. He will manipulate you any chance he gets. Don’t let him!”

“I’m sorry. I just thought he should know. We won’t go anywhere if we hide this from him.”  
“Do you think he is honest with us? We cannot trust him!”

Mabel sighed. “I know. But there’s nothing we can do now. We can’t rebuilt the portal and the journals are gone. What could he still want from us?”

“That’s what I am worried about,” Dipper said. “We are useless to him but he still sticks around. I think he’s planning something.”

“I just think he’s lost,” Mabel said quietly. “He can’t go back to his dimension and now his life has no purpose.”

Dipper raised an eyebrow at her. “Really? He’s a demon, Mabel. He doesn’t have a life, or a purpose or whatever. He’s just ...there.”

“I think it’s more complicated than that,” she replied thoughtfully.

Dipper exhaled and let his hands fall to his side. “I also have a lot of questions I would like to have answered,” he said. “But I’m starving. I will talk to Bill after lunch. Maybe I can find out what he’s plotting.”

“Good idea, bro. And I will keep my mouth shut for a change.”

Dipper smiled. “Don’t... I should have talked to you before. Sorry I got so angry.”

“It’s ok. We’re still alive, right.”

“I wonder how much longer.”

“Too dark, bro.”

“Sorry.”

 

Before they went back into the gift shop Dipper made sure that Bill wasn’t lurking behind the door. He was still not fully recovered but Dipper knew he was strong enough to be a serious threat in a fight. He pushed the thought away when the shop was as empty as they had left it. He still made sure to go ahead of Mabel as they walked through the living room. The door to the porch was open and Dipper could see the meadow but no sign of Bill. Maybe he had run of, Dipper thought. His hopes were shattered when they turned the corner to the kitchen and saw him sitting in one of the chairs, sipping tea from the mug Dipper had taken inside.

“You left the stove on,” he said.

Dipper turned around and saw with embarrassment that the pot of water had boiled over and was now half empty. At least Bill had turned it off. He got a rag from the lower cupboard and started to wipe up the mess.

“I wish this was the first time this has happened,” Mabel sighed and took to the pot to the sink to fill it up again.

“If you need help destroying the shack, let me know,” Bill grinned and Dipper shot him a glare.

“Sorry, I got distracted,” Dipper said to Mabel who put the pot back and got a packet of spaghetti and a glass of tomato sauce from the shelf. Dipper looked at her with surprise.

“How did you know I was going to make noodles?” he asked.

“Oh please. We’re twins. I can read your thoughts.” She chuckled at his expression. “That’s what you always make when you don’t feel like cooking,” she added and Dipper pulled a face.

Bill watched in silence as the siblings prepared their lunch. It didn’t take long for the water to boil again and the sauce was quickly heated up. Dipper watched the spaghetti slowly slip into the water as they softened. He thought about mentioning the portal to Bill but it would only lead to an uncomfortable discussion and he was not sure he was ready for that just yet. At least he wanted to have a meal first. He would also save all his questions for later.

“Try to eat slower this time, ok?” Dipper said glancing at Bill as he stirred the noodles.

The demon scrunched his nose. “Not my fault the guy’s stomach couldn’t handle it.”

“Right,” Dipper sneered. He fished out a single spaghetti from the pot and tasted it. Happy with the consistency he strained off the water and distributed the noodles onto the three plates Mabel had set out. She shoved Dipper playfully when she saw how little he had put onto one of them.

“What? He’s gonna throw it up anyway. Why waste perfectly good food?” he asked and earned glares from two sides. He sighed theatrically and added a little more.

When he finally got to eat Dipper realized how hungry he was. Sure there was the fact that he had skipped breakfast and dinner had been sparse but he felt like he hadn’t eaten in days. If he wasn’t careful he would be the one running for the toilet.  
Bill had a little trouble at first getting the noodles on his fork but he learned quickly and was soon eating with an equally big appetite.

“Looks like you enjoy human food,” Mabel said when she watched him get a second helping.

“Humans are weird,” Bill stated. “Isn’t it inconvenient to have to eat all the time to maintain your body temperature and physiological functions?”

Mabel tilted her head. “I guess. But it also tastes really good,” she said and put half the noodles on her plate onto her fork.

“It’s not bad,” Bill agreed. “But being hungry I can do without. It makes people unbearable.” He shot a sideway glance at Dipper who narrowed his eyes at him. It would have looked threatening if his mouth hadn’t been so full and Bill grinned.

“Eat up, Pine Tree. Get that neurotransmitters flowing. You’ve been cranky long enough.”

Mabel snorted and earned a warning look from her brother. It was true though, Dipper thought. He felt much better now that his stomach was full. He was still very concerned about Bill but he felt like he was actually able to come up with a plan. If only he had a little time to think.

They shared the last few noodles between them then leaned back in their chairs contently.

“I could get used to that”, Bill said and licked his lips.

“We’re not doing this for you,” Dipper scoffed. “But for the guy whose body you took.”

“Ouch. I still get to enjoy it though.”

"Wait until you taste some real food," Mabel said. "I can bake some mean cupcakes and we could have a barbecue and-."

"Don't get carried away, Mabel,” Dipper interrupted. “We have more important things on our mind right now, remember?"

"Like what?" Bill asked and looked at Dipper both curiously and threateningly.

"Like who's gonna do the dishes." he replied innocently. "How about Bill? He should do some chores as long as he's around. Considering he’s not even paying rent.”

“If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t even be here.”

Mabel shuddered at the sudden shift in the atmosphere. She gathered their plates together nervously and put them into the sink. Bill’s face showed mere boredom and he blinked lazily at Dipper whose hands began to tremble with rage.

“Dipper, don’t!” Mabel tried but he wouldn’t even look at her.

“Then why don’t you get lost and leave us alone?” Dipper felt his anger and worry fill up his mind and he could no longer hold back. “What is going on in your head? There is nothing for you here! You know the portal is destroyed!”

Mabel gasped and the house was suddenly very quiet. Bill’s expression didn’t change and his indifference to his outburst made Dipper even angrier. He knew he was putting both Mabel and him at risk but he didn’t care. He wanted to evoke a reaction from Bill who acted so nonchalantly.

“What do you want from us?” he stood and braced his hands on the table. “Do you expect us to build the portal back together? Is that it? It took Stans thirty years to do that!” his voice was louder than he intended but he could not back down any more.  
“And even if he could why would we help you? You put us through so much and the problem you have now is your fault alone! If you can’t go to the mindscape by yourself, face it...!” His voice as close to yelling now.  
“You will never go back at all!”

Dipper sensed the movement before he actually saw it. He was just getting ready for another string of insults when Bill shot up from his chair and grabbed for his shirt. Dipper managed to dodge his hand but was unprepared for the fist that followed.  
His vision filled with a bright light and a sharp pain erupted in his left cheek. Before he was able to comprehend the situation Bill threw his weight on him and they stumbled to the floor. On instinct Dipper threw his arms up to defend his face from more punches but Bill started targeting his now exposed torso. The air was knocked out of his lungs when a knee collided with his ribs. From far away he heard Mabel yell something. He defended a punch directed at his stomach and felt one hit his mouth. He grabbed Bill’s arm when he raised it again and pushed himself up. This threw of Bill’s balance for a short moment and Dipper landed a blow to his chest and the side of his head. He pulled his legs under him and threw Bill on his back. He pinned his arms with his knees and reached back when he felt Mabel’s hands grab his raised fist.  
His surroundings came into focus again and he sensed the rapid beat of his heart, the stinging pain with each breath and the taste of metal as the adrenaline in his blood subsided. He didn’t resist when Mabel pulled him away and stood between them. She was shaking but her face was stern. Dipper wiped a hand over his mouth and was not surprised to see a red smudge. He saw Bill slowly getting to his feet darting glares at both of them. He pressed a hand onto his chest where Dipper had punched him and shuffled out of the kitchen through the open back door.

Mabel turned around and Dipper was startled by how little sympathy he received.  
“What the hell, bro?” she asked in a low voice. “Are you out of your mind?” Her words were calm but dripping with suppressed rage and Dipper knew she didn’t want those questions answered.

“Urgh,” she threw her hands up. “I don’t get you guys! Why is talking so hard for you?”

“Mabel! He started it!”

“And you just thought it would be a good idea to threaten a demon?” She kicked a chair in frustration and Dipper winced. If Mabel was angry like this he knew he was in serious trouble.

“I don’t understand! You were the one who said how careful we should be and to not upset him… And then you insult him! Please tell me you have a good reason!”

Dipper couldn’t hold her gaze and averted his eyes.

“Sometimes I don’t get you at all,” she sighed and went to the sink. “If Bill decides to blow up the shack … no, the whole town, you know you’re responsible.”

“What do you want me to do, Mabel? Ignore him? Pretend he’s our new roommate? Just let him walk around freely making our lives miserable? How long do you think we could’ve kept this up? A week? A year?”

She dropped the pot into the water with a splash. “This whole thing bothers me as much as you. Can’t you see that? Don’t you think I’m worried too?”

Dipper didn’t dare answering and sighed instead. He watched her rinse and dry off the plates. He picked up his chair from the floor and sat down. His knees were too shaky to stand. He buried his face in his arms and tried to get his breathing under control. His ribs hurt terribly.  
As much as he wanted to build up more anger to let out on Bill later he found he couldn’t. The demon had known about the portal when Dipper had talked to him in the meadow and he had not seemed upset. Maybe he had still thought they would help restore it but how could he have been so sure about that? If a simple comment about not going back had made him so mad maybe he wasn’t as calm as he pretended to be.  
There was no doubt that he’d had a plan when he got here but what would he do now without one? He had the chance to seriously hurt Dipper during the fight and no reason to hold back. But he didn’t. Compared to his powers in the mindscape a punch was nothing, even if Dipper’s face was still numb with pain and his cheek bleeding on the inside. But if he really had no power how could he explain his fast healing. This didn’t make any sense.  
Dipper’s arms muffled his frustrated groan. He hated not knowing what was going on around him.

“I think Bill really needs our help,” Mabel said and she had finally calmed down enough for Dipper to look at her directly.

“You think?”

“Dipper!” she groaned. “Just listen. He wants to go back to the mindscape and we want him to leave. It’s basically the same thing.”

“Yeah, but he will be not so pleasant in our nightmares, don’t forget that.”

“That could be a problem, yes,” she agreed and sat down next to him. “Except if it’s part of a deal.”

“Mabel! You are the crazy one now! We will not make a deal with Bill! Absolutely not!”

She sighed. “I don’t know what else to do. We just have to make sure to not leave any loopholes.”

Dipper let his forehead rest on the table. His head felt heavy and his body yearned for some rest. “We can’t do that,” he said under his breath. “This is what he wanted all along.”

“What?”

“I asked about his deal last night when you were sleeping.” Dipper felt her eyes on him. “I’m sorry, I should have told you about it. Anyway, he said if he helped him to get back into the mindscape he would never bother us ever again.”

“That’s what he said?”

Dipper nodded and leaned his head to the side so he could look at his sister. She was twisting strands of her hair in her fingers. Something she did when she was in deep thought.

“He told me he doesn’t have his powers in this dimension so he can’t open the portal by himself,” she said after a while. “But that would also mean he can’t make deals, right?”

“That’s what I figured too.” Dipper said and rubbed his cheek to get some feeling back. “But I also think he’s keeping stuff from us and as long as we don’t know everything I refuse to lift a finger for him.”

“I understand. But he must have had a reason to come to us in particular even after all that happened. I think this could be over soon if we worked on this together.”

“You are too optimistic, Mabel.”

“I know. Someone has to be in this family.”

Dipper smiled at her. “Sorry, I’m such a pain in the ass.”

“It’s ok. That’s what little brothers are for.” She patted his shoulder. “Now keep an eye on Bill while I finish doing the dishes and don’t get into another fight.”

Dipper rolled his eyes. “Maybe he ran off into the woods and got eaten by bears.”

Mabel laughed. “Let’s not get our hopes up. Just make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone or himself, ok?

Dipper got up, tested his legs and found they could hold him. He walked outside and onto the porch. He looked over to the forest and expected Bill to sit in the meadow again but instead he spotted a group of people walking at the edge of the trees. From the way they were dressed Dipper concluded that they were not tourists but locals. They didn’t seem to take a hike either but moved together strategically. Before he could call out to them a voice next to him made him jump.

“They’re looking for me.”

Bill was sitting on the sofa, one leg propped up. Dipper took a second to process his words then remembered the search party for the lost driver Mabel had mentioned. One of the men, a bulky redhead, waved at him and he recognised Wendy’s father. There were a few others but he didn’t know them. Dipper raised a hand in greeting and watched them slowly disappear into the shadows again. He felt a pang of guilt with the body they were looking for so close by.

“I told you not to piss me off, Pine Tree,” Bill said when Dipper approached him.

Dipper ignored him. He flopped down next to him but left as much space between them as possible. Bill regarded him with a quizzical look.

Dipper made sure to pause dramatically before speaking.

“I want to talk about your deal.”


	10. X

Bill crossed his arms and studied Dipper's face. "I already told you about my deal and you wouldn't agree. Have you changed your mind, kid?"

"Actually I think I want to add something to the conditions."

Bill’s eyebrows knitted together. "Why do you think you're in any position to do that?" he scoffed.

"Because you obviously need us or you would have left already."  
Dipper hoped to sound more confident about that than he felt. As he had experienced first hand Bill was unpredictable at some times and he did not feel like another brawl. His ribs still ached with every breath and he was sure his shoulders would show impressive bruises tomorrow.

"I just don’t know what to do,” Bill said and dropped his gaze. Dipper wasn’t sure if it was out of shame or because he was hiding something. He assumed the later.

"No, I think you're up to something,” he said and Bill shot him a glance through narrowed eyes.

"What is it with you?" Bill sneered. "Has anyone ever told you not to be so paranoid? Why do you think everything is about you?”

“Because it is! You chose to come to us! What else am I supposed to think?”

Bill rolled his eyes. “Yes, I came here but why do you think it was because of you?”

Dipper groaned. “Because you need someone to open the portal for you. Why do you make this so difficult? You already said that -."  
A sudden thought struck his mind and shut him up almost instantly. Bill hadn’t been waiting for him and Mabel to come back to Gravity Falls. It was a coincidence that they were here now but Bill couldn’t have known that.

"You came here because you thought Ford would be here."

It took him a while to let the realization sink in. "You must have been disappointed to not get your revenge on them."

Bill looked at him condescendingly.  
"That's what you think? That it's about revenge?"

Dipper shrugged. "I would be pretty mad if someone banished me into another dimension."

"You humans and your grudges," Bill sighed and shook his head. "Your entire lifespan is just a blink of an eye compared to my immortality. Why would I care about a couple old geezers?"

Dipper ran a hand over his eyes trying to rearrange his thoughts.  
"They seemed important enough to go to them for help, didn't they?"

Bill didn’t reply. His face was blank and Dipper could not guess his thoughts. There could be anything between depression and boiling rage hiding under the surface.

“Why would they help you?” he asked to break the silence. “I mean they were the ones who got you sucked into the portal in the first place.” Bill gave him a warning look but Dipper felt like provoking him a little. When he talked it was easier to guess what he was thinking.  
“You should really start getting used to that body”, he snorted. “Looks like you’ll be living in it for quite some time.”

Suddenly Bill leaned closer and a vicious smile played around his lips. "Foolish kid. You still think you have the upper hand in this?"

Dipper huffed. He had a expected a different reaction. "Of course." His voice was not as calm as he had liked but it was too late to back out now.  
"Without the portal you are stuck here. No-one will help you build it back together."

"You think?” Bill smirked and Dipper was suddenly very aware of his proximity. "I think you're missing some important details here, Pine Tree."

Dipper licked his dry lips and tried hard not to show how uncomfortable he felt. He had to remind himself that Bill was almost powerless now and he shouldn’t be intimidated. Anything he told him was probably a lie and the way he talked and moved was just another way to scare him.

“Humans will accept every deal if you offer them something they really want,” he said when Dipper did not back away.

“And what could that be?” Dipper sneered. He couldn’t think of anything the Stans wanted. They seemed to have led a happy life in the last nine years.  
"Not even Grunkle Stan will help you for all the money in the world."

"There are some things even he treasures more," he said knowingly.

Until now Dipper had been sure Bill was bluffing but the demon’s confidence didn’t waver. “Like what?” Bill’s expression made his blood run cold.

"The lives of their youngest offsprings for example."

Dipper's breath hitched and a grin spread on the other's face. Bill held his gaze apparently waiting for a more frightened reaction but Dipper did not want to give him the satisfaction. This was not the conversation he had hoped for. He had been sure the demon had thought of something to make them work to his advantage but he had not expected to be used as leverage. 

"So you turn to blackmailing when you run out of ideas?" Dipper asked dryly and was glad his voice didn't betray his racing heart. "That's low, even for you."

"Watch your tongue, kid!"

"Or what?" Dipper snapped. He had enough of his condescending tone and demeanour. He thought about his great uncles being forced to rebuild the portal to safe them. They had done enough for them already. Why couldn’t they live the rest of their lives in peace? He tried to push his anger away and forced himself to relax his clenched fists. Hurting Bill physically would only provide a short term solution and he would not get away that easily a second time. Then he thought of something and he was confident to blow the demon’s bluff.  
“How are you going to do that anyway? You don’t have your powers any more!”

The hint of a smile formed on Bill's lips and Dipper wondered why he couldn't keep his mouth shut once in a while.  
"Don't be stupid, Pine Tree. It's true that I can't make any deals right now but that doesn't mean I'm powerless. I healed this body over night, didn't I?"

Dipper swallowed hard. Bill was still so close that he could see every detail of his irises. In that shade of the roof they were the color of dried blood.

"Then why don't you open up a portal by yourself, oh-so-powerful demon?"

If he wanted to get killed or at least beaten up again he was doing great, Dipper thought to himself. But Bill was not so easily provoked this time. He merely shot him a glare and dropped back onto his side of the sofa.

"I don't need to tell you anything, kid."

Dipper was relieved to get away from him but he was no closer to figuring out a plan than he was before. If he wanted to find out more about Bill he could not let himself be intimidated. He decided to try a different approach.  
"Let's make this clear," he said and took a few calming breaths. "We basically want the same thing. You want to go back to your dimension and I want to get rid of you."

Bill raised his eyebrows expectantly but didn't interrupt.

"What I'm saying is..." Dipper inhaled and was not sure he wanted to say more. "We don't have the portal or the journals so we need to find another way." He gulped down the lump in his throat. "But if you don’t open up a little, I cannot help you."

"You really think you are capable of helping me?" Bill scoffed. He crossed his arms and looked over at the forest where the search party had appeared.

"I think you don't have any other options." Dipper said calmly. "If you had your full power you would have done something to hurt us already. And you would not be sitting here so patiently waiting for Grunkle Stan and Ford to return from their vacation."

"I don't need to justify myself," Bill said but turned away when he felt Dipper's piercing stare. After a long minute he sighed in defeat and ran a hand through his hair.  
"What do you want to hear, Pine Tree?" He asked and faced him again. "That I lost almost all of my powers? That I'm stuck in this dimension forever? That I rely on two frail, senile humans who would rather see me burn in hell than help me? Is that it?”

Dipper was taken aback by the sudden burst of emotions but felt no sympathy.  
"All I know is that blackmailing my family is a very desperate action. Especially for someone as proud as you."

Bill's face was blank. "You don't know anything. You're just a human."

"So are you," Dipper said coldly. "At least for now."  
He watched as Bill got up and stepped to the other side of the porch.

"Even if you convinced them," Dipper began and put his legs up now that he had more room. "It will take years before the portal would be operational again. Do you want to wait that long?"

Bill’s voice was stern. "I waited nine years to make it this far and as I already told you: time is irrelevant to me."

Dipper thought about that for a while but it only raised more questions.

"Why did it take you so long anyway?" he finally asked but Bill didn't react.  
He stood with his back to him following a flock of birds in the sky with his eyes. The shadows had started to get longer but the sun was still strong and had dried most of the wet terrain.  
Dipper yawned and lied his head onto the armrest. Why was he feeling so tired again? He had been sleeping for who knows how many hours and he felt exhausted

"Answer my questions!" he said impatiently and stretched his arms.

Bill snorted. “I know you can’t handle the uncertainty, Pine Tree. You always need to know everything.”

“So what? I won’t help you if I can’t trust you. And I don’t trust you if you don’t tell me what happened to you and how you got here.”

Bill looked at him over his shoulder. “Why do I need you to trust me?”

Dipper bent his neck to read his face and was surprised when he didn’t find a smirk but earnest curiosity.

“I don’t know if anything you’ve told us so far is the truth,” he said after contemplating his words. “but if you want my help - our help - I need to know what you’re capable of and where the limits to your current power lie.”

Bill turned around fully and looked at him questioningly. “What does that have to do with trusting me?”

Dipper began to feel nervous in his defenseless position on the sofa but sensed no malevolence from the demon and relaxed again.

“I would feel a lot safer if I knew you’re not secretly planning to kill us in our sleep,” he said then added “Or in our dreams.”

Bill stepped closer and smiled down at him. “If I wanted to do that I would have done it last night.”

Dipper felt his ears grow warm and tried to hide his embarrassment. Bill seemed to relish his reaction and pushed further. “It didn’t seem you were worried at all when you let me sleep in your bed, why is that?”

The first thing that came to Dipper’s mind was how fast he could be up and where he could hide but then his pride kicked in and he just glared. “Because you were in pain and cold and you had the chance to hurt Mabel but you didn't and I felt sorry for you, ok? And don’t worry. It will not happen again.”  
He crossed his arms over his chest and sneered up at Bill.

The demon raised his arms defensively. “Calm down, it was just a question, kid.” He stepped back and leaned against the doorframe. “But it was nice not being cold for once.”

Dipper put an arm over his eyes to block out the sun and so Bill wouldn’t read his face. He waited for the afterimage to fade behind his closed lids.  
These were not the responses he had hoped for. There was no chance he could get any information from the demon like this. He was just too careful with his words.

"So? What new conditions do you have for my deal?" Bill asked behind him.

"That does not mean I'm going to accept it," Dipper replied. He had been sure Bill had dismissed his request but he was obviously still interested.

"Same here. I'm just curious."

"Well," Dipper started and carefully laid out his words. "I just want you to be honest with me. And there is so much you're keeping from us."

Bill chuckled. "You don't need to know everything, Pine Tree."

Dipper shrugged but wasn't sure if Bill was even looking at him. Apparently he didn't need their help as badly as he had assumed. Without the journals they wouldn't be able to do much anyway.

"Now if you were able to offer me something I wanted, I might tell you one or two things.” He paused and Dipper took his arm off his forehead to see him walk back to the sofa. He pulled up his legs up to make room for Bill who stared at him thoughtfully.

“What?” Dipper asked when he didn’t continue.

Bill sat down and leaned onto Dipper’s bent knees. “What do you say to this? I will answer one of your questions if you stop plaguing me for the rest of the day, deal?”

Dipper couldn’t really concentrate on the demon’s suggestions because this simple act of disrespecting his personal space made him want to kick him. He tried to focus his attention away from the weight on his legs and onto Bill’s words. The other was looking at him eagerly.

“Only one question?”, Dipper asked dryly.

Bill nodded. “It’s a very generous offer, I know. And in exchange you don’t insult, punch or try to poison me until tomorrow’s sunrise.”

“Poison you?” Dipper chuckled. “Who is paranoid now?”

Bill’s facial features turned from playful to annoyed in the fraction of a second. “The painkillers you gave me knocked me out for hours. Don’t pretend this wasn’t your intention, Pine Tree.”

“They’re PAINkillers, for God’s sake,” Dipper scoffed but he felt fear rise in his chest. “They treat pain. I can’t help it if they have one or another side effect. Your body needed some rest that is all.”

Bill’s eyes were still narrowed dangerously at him. “I will let it slide this time, kid. But don’t try anything like this again or you will suffer my side effects, are we clear?”

Dipper bit back a response and tried not to pull away his legs from Bill’s grasp. He didn’t want him to see him scared.

“So?” Bill asked and his face had lost its menacing stare. “Have you thought of a question yet?”

“I didn’t agree to the deal yet,” he said angrily. “And I will treat you the way I want.”

Bill’s face hardened again. “Don’t be stubborn, kid. I know how much you crave for answers.

“You can’t make any deals as a human, I know that much. How will I know you’re actually telling the truth, huh?”

Bill shrugged. “You don’t. But I can’t be sure you keep your part of the deal either so it’s only fair.”

Dipper weighed his options. He could manage to leave Bill alone for half a day. And if he tried something he would not hesitate to interfere. He was positive the demon would not give him crucial information on himself but with the right question - even if it was a lie - he could maybe find out something about his weaknesses.

“Alright,” he finally said and Bill’s face lit up but when he reached out a hand Dipper made no move to take it.  
“I am not going to shake on it,” he said and glared at Bill. “You will push me out of my body again or try something similar and I will not fall for that. I’m not a stupid child any more.”

Bill frowned slightly but pulled his hand back. “Sorry, force of habit. Wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” He gave a crooked smile. “So what do you want to know?”

Dipper inhaled deeply. He wanted to take his time. He would not be forced into a rash decision by Bill’s anticipating face so close to his. Bill would not be honest about his plans for opening the portal that was for sure. He also didn’t want to tell them how he got back. Dipper guessed that he feared it would give them ideas about how to force him back. He decided to use a different approach. He carefully weighed his words. 

“When you took possession of my body back in the day you were not able to use any powers, right?”

“Correct,” Bill said and grinned at him. “That was a really lame question, Pine Tree.”

It took a few seconds for Dipper to realize his mistake. He frantically searched for a way to save the situation but before he could open his mouth to protest Bill stifled a laugh.

“No, don’t get mad!” He snickered. “I couldn’t help it.” He grinned at him and Dipper’s exasperation vanished immediately. “Sorry, go on.” He rested his chin on Dipper’s knee and stared at him expectantly. “At least you know I answered truthfully.”

Dipper sneered at him. “I will know if you don’t. Now.... how could you heal this body so fast?”

Bill gave him a long look and Dipper was beginning to suspect he would not answer at all.

“Excellent observation, Pine Tree,” he said after a few moments of silence. “Let’s just say things have changed quite a bit since the last time I came here.”

“What is different?” Dipper asked quickly and hoped Bill would let him get away with a second question.

“This time I was not summoned by anybody,” he said and his eyebrows knitted together. “I guess that’s how I get to keep some of my power even as a human.”

“What do you mean ‘you guess’?” Dipper asked and now he felt that he was pushing his luck. Bill peered hard at him but replied nonetheless.

“I’ve never left the mindscape before.”

Dipper stared in disbelief. What did that mean? He ached to pry further but Bill’s weight lifted from his legs and he got up.

“I hope you got your answers, kid,” he said and turned towards the door. “And don’t forget about your part of the deal!”

Dipper heard him walk inside and was left only with his thoughts. He turned on his stomach and looked at the forest without really seeing it. His head was too full to think clearly.


	11. XI

Dipper woke with a start.  
He sat up and for a moment didn't recognize his surroundings. The bright light of the afternoon sun blinded him but then the silhouette of the forest and the back porch slowly came into focus.  
He reached behind him and felt the texture of the sofa under his fingers. When was the last time he had fallen asleep so easily?

He yawned and stretched his stiff shoulders. He felt light headed and not at all rested. He tried to piece his memories together. The last thing he remembered was thinking about Bill's answers.  
Why did he say he had never left the mindscape? That wasn't true. The demon had shown up countless times. Why would he make his lie so obvious?

Dipper rubbed a hand over his eyes and forehead. The first signs of a headache started to throb in his skull. He concluded to talk to Mabel. She usually had a different point of view on things.  
He stretched his numb legs to get his feeling back. The old sofa was really not the best place to nap.

He expected Mabel to be in the living room and watch TV but when he walked by the kitchen he saw her sitting at the table reading a book. She never had the patience to sit down and concentrate for very long so Dipper was amazed by the look of deep concentration on her face as she studied the page in front of her. The book itself was roughly the size of a dictionary and had an antique look to it. As he got closer he saw that the pages were well thumbed and some of the letters had turned into smudges over time.

“What’s that?” Dipper asked and Mabel jumped in her chair. Apparently she had been so absorbed in the book she hadn’t noticed him come in.

“Oh, it’s you.” She breathed a sigh of relief.

Dipper looked over her shoulder and tried to read some of the text. Up close he could see that the letters were actually written by hand. “I don’t remember you bringing this with you. Where did you get that?”

“Uh...well.” she began. “I kind of found it lying around.”

“Lying around?” Dipper repeated and suddenly knew where this was going. “Where?”

Mabel looked away. “On a shelf … in Grunkle Stan’s room.”

They had been told countless times not to go in there and they didn’t want to. It was a scary place for many reasons.

“What? Why did you go into Grunkle Stan’s room?”

Mabel looked at him as if he was missing the obvious and he started to feel like it to.

“I’m trying to find something we can use against Bill.

Dipper sat down next to her and pulled the heavy book to him. „What kind of book is this?“  
He flipped it over to read the cover but beside a blotch of ink and dust it was blank.

„It was the only one with no inscription on its back and looks a little like the journals, don’t you think?“

Dipper traced the writing with his fingers. „You think Ford wrote this?“

Mabel tilted her head. „I don’t know but it’s possible, don’t you think?“

Dipper skimmed a few pages. The writing was neat and not all over the place as it was with the journals. There were no drawings or diagrams, just walls of text with an occasional headline. Whoever wrote this must have copied it from other sources. He was about to ask Mabel what it was about when his eyes fell on a couple of words that spiked his interest: mind, demon, possession.  
“It looks like a collection of information on demons,” Mabel said quietly and involuntarily peered over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t overheard.

“What does it say about Bill?” Dipper asked eagerly.

“I don’t know yet. It doesn’t have a table of contents and the headlines don’t help much either. I’ve been paging through it for over an hour now and have found nothing on him.”

Dipper rested his chin on his hands. “Maybe he has his own. The Stans must’ve had a lot of information on him.”

Mabel sighed. “Yeah, I guess that’s what was in the journals.” Dipper gave her a bitter look at these words. “But there must be something on exorcism or binding spells or anything we can use.”  
She leaned over the book again and Dipper tried to read from an angle.

ALIEN LIMB SYNDROME  
INITIALLY DESCRIBED AS A NEUROLOGICAL DISORDER BY DOCTORS THIS CONDITION FORCES THE VICTIM TO SHARE PARTS OF THEIR BODY – MOST COMMONLY AN ARM OR A LEG - WITH AN INFERIOR DEMON (SEE PAGE 267). ALTHOUGH ITS POWER IS LIMITED IT CAN ACT FREELY IN THE MORTAL WORLD AND BECOME A GREAT DANGER BOTH TO THE VICTIM AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS. THERE ARE SOME DOCUMENTED CASES OF STRANGULATION BY A POSSESSED HAND OR THE USE OF TOOLS TO CUT OR-  
A shudder spread over Dipper’s back and he had to pull his eyes away. “This’ll give me nightmares. How can you read this?”

Mabel shrugged. “I think it’s greatly exaggerated. Most of these things are either psychiatric conditions or mere fantasy.”

“Why would Grunkle Stan have something like this in his room?”

“It’s a handwritten book, it must be worth something. But maybe he used it for ideas on how to deal with Bill. He’s a demon after all.”

“True.” Dipper looked around. “Speaking of which, where is he?”

Mabel looked at the clock over the door. “He said he’d take a walk about two hours ago. Maybe he got lost?”

“Two hours? Why didn’t you wake me?”

Mabel smiled at him. “I checked on you a couple times but you looked so peaceful.”

Dipper groaned. “What’s wrong with me? I never sleep that much!”

“That’s totally normal,” Mabel tried to reassure him. “You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Your body needs its rest.”

“As if Bill walking around by himself wouldn’t stress me.” He got up and filled a glass with cold water. His headache was now a dull throb behind his temples.

“You have to control your temper around Bill or you’ll do something stupid again. We don’t know what he’s capable of… He could really hurt you.”

Dipper sipped on his water and stared thoughtfully into space. “Sorry, Mabel. I’ll be more careful.”  
He stretched his neck and shoulders and tried to relax his tense muscles.

Mabel kept her eyes on him. “If he wanted to hurt anyone he would have done so already. We absolutely no control over him so don’t pretend he’s your responsibility.”

Dipper shot her a glance. “But he is, Mabel. It’s our fault if something happens to Grunkle Stan, Ford or anyone in town. We’re the one who took his dimension from him, he will not let us get away!”

Mabel bit her lip and started chewing on it. Something she did when she was very worried which was not very frequent and it hurt Dipper to see her like that.

“What if we helped him?” Mabel asked after a moment. “What if we accepted his deal? We help him to get back to the mindscape and he will leave us alone forever.”

Dipper pressed his fingers to the sides of his head to stop the impending pain. “His deals are never honest, we can’t trust him.”

Mabel frowned. “Yes, you said that. But what else can we do?”

Dipper exhaled. “We can’t open the portal either! We would have to drain the basement, find all the pieces, get new journals, activate it… Do you happen to have radioactive waste lying around somewhere? In Grunkle Stan’s room perhaps?”

“Don’t be mean,” Mabel scoffed and turned to her book again.

Dipper filled another glass and put it next to her.  
“Tell me when you find something.”  
She looked up curiously. “Where are you going? Please don’t tell me you’ll go looking for Bill!”

“No, I’ll try to do something useful for a change.” He turned around and walked up the stair. Mabel’s eyes followed him.

 

Not having the journals to consult he had felt powerless but maybe he didn’t need them at all. If Mabel could find a book about demons so easily who knows what else the Stans had stashed in their rooms. Maybe they had kept notes they hadn't put into their journals but were equally useful. When he reached the door to Stan’s room his headache was almost gone. He could work on a mystery again like he did when he was a kid and the thought thrilled him. It was a lot more at stake now and it would be more difficult to keep it a secret when Bill was around but nonetheless he couldn't help feeling excited.

He turned the knob in with an eerie creak the door swung inwards. The curtains were draw over the window and let in almost no light. The air was stuffy and smelled of mothballs and Grunkle Stan’s cologne. Dipper let the door close behind him before pulling the curtains aside and opening the window. There was no wind rustling through the trees and no birds singing. It was too quiet for this time of day. Dipper shook of the thought and turned to Stan’s old bookshelf. It was a high as the ceiling and contained hundreds of books in various sizes and colors. It would take hours to look through all of them, Dipper thought but at the same time the sheer number of things he could discover among them excited him. He let his fingers brush over the spines. There seemed to be no system of any sort. Books that looked ancient stood next to paperback fiction novels, a cookbook was perched between a leather-bound book titled in hieroglyphs and a medical textbook. Most of them were covered in multiple layers of dust and cobwebs.

 

Dipper pulled out one book at random. It was a sixty years old atlas. He skimmed over the maps but found nothing out of the ordinary except for some minor changes in borders compared to newer editions. He put it back and took the one next to it. This one was bound in cloth and bent on the corners. The title had rubbed off over the years but judging by the pictures Dipper concluded it was a collection of fairy tales. He took down a few more and found old school books, dictionaries, autobiographies, books about astronomy, geology and electrical engineering. Grunkle Stan must have kept every book he had ever owned. Dipper stepped back and tried to look at the whole shelf at once. Maybe they were sorted in a pattern. Maybe the great number of random books was a disguise for the few that were actually interesting. His eyes fell onto the bottom shelf were a gap between two large books was visible. He bent down and noticed fresh fingerprints in the dust. This was where Mabel had gotten her demon book.

 

Dipper pulled out the one next to it. It was titled ‘The Anatomy of the Human Brain’. Upon opening it he saw it presented detailed drawings and labeled sketches of even the smallest nerve or capillary. Later chapters explained the processing of neuronal stimulation and the structures responsible for personality, self-awareness and empathy. The pattern it outlined was long outdated, Dipper knew but it still fascinated him although he couldn’t imagine what their Grunkle needed that information for. It all started to make sense when he took out another book. It had no title on the front but the first page read ‘The Psychology of Dreams’. Demons, the brain, dreams? This was no coincidence.

 

He knew that their Grunkles had been gathering information on Bill since their first encounter but he thought they had gotten it first hand rather than simple textbooks. He turned a few pages in the book and wondered if this had really been useful in their studies. Dipper had expected a more supernatural approach but instead it contained passages about the history of dream analysis, the meaning of symbols and even common personality disorders. It was not entirely uninteresting but he could not see how it would help them with Bill. Mabel had obviously picked the best book in the entire room. Or had she? Dipper looked around. He knew their Grunkle well enough to not end his search so easily. Maybe there was a hidden room behind the shelf with an entire library on demons and the mindscape. He peeked between the bookshelf and the wall but only found more dust and decades old dirt. He tried to push it away and even knocked on the wood panels behind it but it was too heavy and the wall sounded as solid as a rock. Ok, no hidden entrance but it wouldn’t be the Mystery Shack without some kind of hiding place. Dipper’s eyes fell on the nightstand and after a short moment of hesitation walked over and opened it. It contained a few magazines the cover of which Dipper did not wish to see and a broken lamp. Disappointed he got down on his knees and looked under the bed. Nothing but dust bunnies. He even lifted the mattress from the bed frame just to make sure he hadn’t overlooked anything. The closet and small cupboard only contained clothes and Dipper didn’t feel like sorting through an old man’s underwear and socks. He checked behind an ugly painting on the wall and even under the carpet. Nothing.  
Dipper sighed in defeat and sat down in front of the shelf again. The book about dream psychology was still lying outside and he picked it and opened a page at random. It showed a chapter on the physiology of sleep. It explained the different types of sleep stages and how dreams are only possible during a specific one. Even though this stage only lasts seconds to minutes the brain is as active as when the person were awake and the highest levels of stimulation were found in the visual cortex. Dipper suspected that during that time the sleeper’s mind entered the mindscape and perceived it as dreams. That also explained why their visit to the other dimension when they were kids had only lasted a few minutes but felt like much longer. He skimmed page after page with graphs of brain waves and a chapter on sleepwalking and eventually came to a more interesting part: Interpretation of dream symbols. It featured common dream symbols and their supposed meaning followed by a more scientific approach.

Out of curiosity Dipper looked up ‘triangle’. It was too specific to have its own paragraph but he found it under ‘geometrical shapes’. Seeing a triangle or pyramid in one’s dream apparently meant either a religious or phallic symbol (Dipper sneered at that) but also wisdom, knowledge, caution and betrayal. He smiled at how perfectly it described Bill. Maybe all the other books had hints in them too, he just had to read them with an open mind. He was about to pick up the book next in line when a scream echoed through the forest.

Dipper’s head snapped around and he jumped to his feet. His heart picked up speed. Had that been a person or an animal? He strained his ears. Perhaps just a bird. He remained motionless but the sound did not repeat itself. He remembered that Bill was out there somewhere and he felt his stomach twist. If he had hurt anyone he would kill him, he could no longer care for the original owner of the body. He would find a surprise waiting for him if he dared to come back to the shack. Did they have any sort of weapons in the house? Ford owned a gun. Where was it? He forced his mind to calm and inhaled deeply. No need to overreact. He walked over to the window and looked outside. The sun was now a vibrant orange and the trees cast long shadows onto the clearing. He listened intently but didn’t hear anything unusual.  
It was still a good idea to have Bill back here when night fell. He would hate to look for him in the dark. He closed the window, put back the book and headed for the kitchen.

The demon book was open on the table but Mabel was gone.

“Dipper?” Her voice came from the back porch and Dipper followed it. Mabel did not turn when she heard him step outside.

“Did you hear that?” she asked quietly. Her face was pale and her eyes were fixated on the edge of the forest.

“Probably a bird or something,” Dipper tried to reassure her but couldn’t even convince himself.

Mabel shook her head. “The search party is still out there.”

“So is Bill.”

Dipper got back inside and put on his shoes. He saw Mabel was already wearing hers.

“Mabel, stay here, ok?” he said firmly and held the door open for her. “I’ll look for Bill.”

She turned and gave him an intense look. She opened her mouth to protest when they heard the scream again. It was definitely a person. A man. Yelling in terror. It was so close.

On instinct Dipper grabbed for Mabel’s arm but she was too quick. She lept off the porch and sprinted across the meadow. Before Dipper could even react she had reached the first row of trees and ran directly into the gloomy forest.  
Dipper wanted to yell after her but he knew she would not listen. Instead he dashed after her. When he reached the dense foliage he had to reduce his speed. Roots and undergrowth tore at his feet and scratched his skin. He heard Mabel’s footfalls in front of him but could barely see her shape. Night had already fallen in here. It was so dark.  
Mabel was lighter and more agile and had the advantage of a head start and Dipper had trouble keeping up. He clawed his way through a wall of brushwood and dived under low hanging branches. He felt his energy quickly draining. His breath came in short pants and more than once he had to tear his shirt loose from thorns while he tried to keep up with his sister. The further they went into the woods the denser it got. Light barely reached the ground so their path was no longer covered with thickets but dead trees and rotting branches. Dipper stepped onto one on accident and the sound reminded him of breaking bones. The sound was incredibly loud in the stillness. Mabel started to slow as her adrenaline was spent and Dipper finally caught up with her. He pulled her to a stop. Her face was flushed and her pullover was ripped on several places.

“Are you crazy”, Dipper asked breathlessly. “What-”

She hushed him. They listened around them. Dipper heard nothing and only saw dark trunks and shadows. His legs trembled with exertion and he felt like he could not get enough air into his burning lungs. The man screamed again and his breath hitched. Then another. And a woman. They were coming closer.  
Mabel reached for her brother and suddenly the forest around them was alive with footsteps. A group of people emerged from the darkness and ran directly for them. Dipper recognized two people from the search party. He could not see their faces but he didn’t need to. They were terrified and running for their lives.

“What’s going on?” Mabel asked but they didn’t listen. Neither of them seemed to even notice them. They stumbled past them and towards the setting sun, running from the shadow of the night behind them.

Dipper looked at Mabel and her eyes were huge with fear. “What do we do?”

Before he could answer a huge man came into view. His shirt was torn and there was blood on his face. It was Wendy’s father and he looked equally horrified.

“Dan!” Mabel yelled. “It’s us! What happened?”  
He didn’t answer but a hint of recognition crossed his face.  
“Get out of here!” he gasped and reached for their arms. Dipper avoided him by an inch but he got a hold of Mabel’s shirt and dragged her after him.

“No!” she shouted in panic and clawed at his hand. “Let me go! Dipper!”

Dipper ran after him and reached for Mabel’s outstretched hand.

“Dan, what’s wrong?”

Running after the giant was like trying to keep up with a rhino. He plowed through the undergrowth and pushed away small trees. Mabel stumbled after him, her arm clutched in his enormous hand. Dipper realized he could not keep up with him.

“Mabel-!” A branch hit him hard in the face and he winced. His foot caught on something and he toppled over. The wind was knocked out of him and he felt sharp edges cut into his arms and chest. He pushed himself up but his hands found only frail branches and rotten leaves. He gasped for air and had to try several times to get to his feet. He was aching all over and flinched when he started to run again. He found he could carry his weight and nothing seemed to be broken although his arm hurt terribly. He could still hear Dan in the shadows but it was fainting quickly and he could not make out the direction.  
Panic spread like ice water in his veins. The sun had vanished and he was left with cold, damp darkness.  
He opened his mouth to shout for help but nothing came out. His throat was constricted with fear. His run slowed into a jog and then stopped completely.  
Don’t freak out, he told himself. It’ just the forest. There is nothing in here anymore, remember? Dan was probably just messing with them.  
He felt his pulse slow and managed to take a deep breath.

“Mabel?” he yelled. “Dan?”

He listened for an answer but he heard only the wind. A soft breeze in the tops of the trees.  
Could he find his way back alone? Would he have to spend the night out here? The thought frightened him. He walked further into the direction he assumed Dan had run. At least Mabel was kind of safe, he tried to reassure himself. What had scared them so badly? A bear? Wolves?  
Could he climb a tree and wait out the night? Can bears climb trees? He shook off the thought and concentrated to put one foot in front of the other. If he followed a straight line to the west he would end up at the road eventually. It was not very far. From there he could find his way back more easily. This little hope pushed back his fear for a while. Mabel must already be there and waiting for him. She would be so worried. Served her right for running off into the forest like that. Why should he always be the one worrying?

A branch cracked behind him and he froze. That was it. It would end here.  
He turned slowly and heard another one break. And another. Coming closer.  
A shape detached itself from the shadows and ran directly at him. Dipper was too shocked to do anything but stare. He braced himself for the impact but instead of hot breath and ripping teeth he was faced with a flash of blonde hair and a strong grip on his arm. He was pulled into a different direction than he had been going and was forced to run again.

“What are you doing here?” Bill snapped at him dodging branches and thorns.

Dipper did his best not to trip again but he was exhausted and his legs were heavy. “Heard...screams…” he managed to explain between gasps for air.  
Suddenly he saw rays of light pierce through the canopy. With his last strength he broke free from Bill’s grasp and dashed forward.

“Hey!”

He felt fingers brush over his back trying to hold onto him. Dipper hauled himself over a fallen tree, burst through waist high thickets and stopped abruptly when he found himself on paved ground. The sun was low and glowing deep red. It illuminated the road he was standing on and the trees behind him. His chest burned like fire but every breath tore at his throat. He felt his knees give way but he forced himself to stand.  
Bill emerged only seconds after him and when Dipper turned around he thought the light of the sun was playing tricks on him. A closer look, however, made it clear that he was not imagining it.  
There was blood dripping down Bill’s fingers and streaks of it on his shirt. 

A shudder ran down Dipper’s back and his legs gave in as he felt realization sink in. He scraped his hands and knees on the asphalt but didn’t feel any pain.

It was Bill they had been running from.


	12. XII

“What did you do to them?” Dipper asked quietly. He pulled his legs under him but remained on the ground. His muscles were too weak to support him. He felt the adrenaline leave his bloodstream and a wave of nausea washed over him.

Bill tried to hide his bloody fingers in his palms. He looked at the sun now hanging low over the treetops then shot a glance behind him. The light didn’t reach further than the first row of trees. Behind them it was pitch black.

“Let’s go!” Bill said without acknowledging his question and stepped over to Dipper. He made a move as if to reach out and help him up but remembered the state of his hands and put them behind his back instead. Dipper glared at him suspiciously.

“What did you do?” he asked again a lot louder and pushed himself up. It took two tries but at last he stood. He felt every joint protest.

Bill gestured him to be quiet. “I’ll explain later. Now hurry!” He reached for his arm to steady him but Dipper backed away quickly. He did not want to have someone’s blood on his shirt. Whose was it anyway? Had Dan been bleeding? He couldn’t remember.

“We will not leave until you’ve told me exactly what you did!”

“Dammit, Pine Tree, why are you so difficult?” Bill groaned. “I’ll tell you at the shack, ok?”

Dipper crossed his arms to keep his hands from shaking. He didn’t want Bill to see how scared he was. He stared at him challengingly.

“Fine. Stay here for all I care,” Bill said and turned to the road.  
Dipper grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back. Bill growled and his head snapped around. “Let go!”

“Not until you’ve answered my question!”

Bill’s face suddenly contorted into pure anger and he grabbed Dipper’s arm leaving streaks of blood on his skin. Dipper shuddered at the sticky liquid but kept his fist closed on the fabric.

“You have no idea what’s going on,” Bill hissed and clenched his fingers tighter. “It’s not safe here!” He tried to pull himself free but Dipper held on.

“That’s your fault,” Dipper said trying to sound calm but his heart was racing.

Bill narrowed his eyes at him and Dipper braced himself for an outburst when Mabel’s voice carried over to them.

Dipper let go of Bill and ran towards her.

“Mabel?!” he yelled and felt his legs get weaker with every step. He followed the road around a bend aware of Bill keeping his distance. Now he knew where he was. The road led directly into town and the junction to the Mystery Shack was in walking distance. He had felt like running for miles but he was just a few minutes from home. That’s what happened when it was dark and everything around you looked the same.  
He reached the arrow pointing towards the shack and spotted Mabel. She was among the members of the search party at the side of the road. She ran up to him when he approached and inspected his torn jeans and dirty shirt.

“Are you ok? What the hell happened?” Dipper asked.

She gave him a warning look then turned around to Dan who was watching her closely. “I’m not really sure.” She faced him again and gave his hand a meaningful squeeze. Dipper interpreted it as ‘something’s not right but I can’t talk about it now’.

“It’s getting dark, we should get home,” she said a little too cheerfully and turned away from him. When Dipper looked over to Dan he was quietly talking to the others. He noticed his stare and cleared his throat.  
“Everyone,” he began and his voice was strong but he sounded very tired. “Thanks for your help today. Try to get some rest, we will continue the search tomorrow.”  
It was followed by a quiet murmur from the other people then they made their way along the main road and into town. Neither of them looked back. The sun had vanished behind the trees and it was not long before they were engulfed by shadows.

Mabel was waiting for him by the arrow pointing towards the shack. The piece of paper they had stapled on it flapped lightly in the evening breeze. It had started to get cold fast.

“What's going on?” Dipper asked more to himself but Mabel shook her head.

“I think I know someone who can give us a little insight on the situation,” she said and shot a glare over Dipper’s shoulder. He turned and saw Bill slowly coming towards them. He stopped before he was close enough for Mabel to see the blood on his hands. Dipper looked at her face and saw it would probably not make a big difference. She already seemed to know who was to blame.

“How dare you come back?” she hissed at him. “You almost scared them to death you bastard!”.

Bill sighed but otherwise stayed quiet.

“Mabel!” Dipper warned her. He didn’t know what exactly Bill had done to the others to frighten them this much but he was sure he could do it to him and Mabel too. He had seen no blood or visible injury on the men but it had been too dark to be completely sure. He also didn’t know if everyone who entered the forest had come back out as well.

“I’ll tell you when we are inside,” he said again and came closer. 

“Like we’ll let you back after that,” Mabel sneered and took a step forward.

Bill’s eyes were hidden in shadows but Dipper could almost physically grasp his tension. He was either going to attack them or make a run for it. Dipper hoped for the later.  
Mabel’s head suddenly snapped around and her eyes went wide. “What was that?”

Dipper looked at her quizzically. “What?”

She hushed him. "Listen!"

Dipper strained his ears. He heard the wind in the trees and the faint sound of the waterfalls but nothing else. He saw Bill turn his head towards the forest. Mabel grabbed his arm. “Dipper.”

“Let’s go!” Bill whispered and broke into a run.

Mabel did not need to be told twice and bolted after him towards the shack. She pulled Dipper with her and the three of them raced for the shack. The sun was gone now and what was left of the sunset glow was too faint to light their way. Dipper tried not to trip on the bumpy road while listening for danger. At first he thought it was the blood rushing in his ears but then it got louder and he heard it behind them. What he had misinterpreted as wind or the river was definitely not that. He could feel no wind in his skin and the trees did not move. It sounded like the whisper of fabric over skin or the slither of a snake through high grass. A gentle, soft sound but louder and coming at him from all directions. He thought he had heard that sound before.

Mabel reached the door first and tore it open. Dipper dashed in after her and Bill followed only a split second behind bumping into him as they stumbled into the gift shop. He heard the door slam shut and closed his eyes to shield them when the light was turned on.  
He was prepared for the door to burst open and braced for an impact but nothing happened. When he turned around he saw Mabel pressed against the wall by the light switch looking at him anxiously. Her eyes searched his face then wandered over to Bill and stopped at his bloodied hands.

“Did you do that?” she asked breathlessly.

Bill gave her a long look and Dipper was about to repeat the question with a little more urgency when he noticed fresh blood on the floor. It was dripping from Bill’s hands and only now did Dipper notice the bruises and cuts that covered his fingertips and the blood seeping from his nail beds. Aware of his gaze Bill crossed his arms and hid his hands beneath his elbows.

“What happened to Dan and the others?” Dipper directed the question at Bill but Mabel was the one who answered.

“Dan told me they were attacked by wolves.”

Dipper grimaced. “Wolves?" he repeated doubtfully. They rarely saw any wolves around here let alone whole packs and they were too timid to come close to people. It also didn’t explain why they were in such a panic. He thought Dan was the last person to be frightened by wild animals even when alone.

Mabel scoffed. “I don’t believe it either. One of the others said it was a bear, someone else said he saw a giant boar.” She shrugged. “It was pretty dark so they’re not sure but Dan didn’t want me to talk about it. He said they were spooked by a noise and they...panicked.”

Dipper remembered the unnatural darkness underneath the trees. It had felt like the middle of the night even though the sun hadn’t set. Shadows and noises could have easily fooled them.  
But he just experienced it for himself just now.  
He listened for the noise outside but it was quiet. In the light of the gift shop his adventure in the forest seemed like a nightmare.

“They acted so strange,” Mabel said to herself and shook her head in thought then turned to her brother. “What do we do now?”

“First of all”, he said and shot Bill a glare. “He will tell us what he did in the forest."

The twins stared at the demon but Bill stood his ground. "That's none of your business."

"Who's difficult now?" Dipper asked mockingly. He stepped over and tried to grab his wrists. "I thought we agreed on working together."

"Did we?" Bill scoffed and put his hands behind his back.

"Did you kill something?" Mabel asked in disgust. "Or someone?" she added more quietly.

Bill rolled his eyes at her. "You wouldn't believe me either way," he replied.

"Try me!" Mabel insisted and Bill sighed.

"I didn't hurt anyone," he said slowly emphasizing each word.

"Then why are your hands all bloody?"

Dipper reached for his elbow but this time Bill didn't pull back. He held his hands up into the light so Mabel too was able to see that it was mostly his own blood covering his fingers. Her eyebrows went up and she shot a questioning glance at Dipper who let go of Bill's wrist and wiped his palms on his shirt. It was a lost case anyway. He should have brought more clothes.

"So what happened?" she asked again but her voice was softer and Dipper even noticed an undertone of pity. "What is out there?"

Bill’s mouth formed a thin line. He looked first at Mabel then at Dipper and when the latter finally hoped to get an answer they heard a door creak in the other room.  
Mabel cursed under her breath. Dipper couldn’t remember if they had closed the back door before they had left for the forest and dread filled his chest. They looked at each other fearfully then dashed for the living room. Dipper reached the door first and tore it open. He flicked the light switch and illuminated the familiar room. It was empty. He crossed it and ran to the kitchen next hitting every switch as he went. Dim light bulbs came to live all around him. His heart jumped into his throat when he saw the back door gaping open. Without thinking he reached for the knob to close it. Was this the door they had heard? Had something come inside?  
When his fingers touched the cool metal the door suddenly swung open. Dipper yelped in surprise and jumped back almost knocking over Mabel who had come after him. They stared at the darkness outside. The light from the kitchen didn’t reached the end of the porch.

“Dipper?” Mabel’s voice was barely audible. There were no stars or moonlight, it was pitch black. As if a giant blanket had been dropped over the shack and was now blocking all the light. Dipper tried to get his numb limbs to move and when he started to reach for the door again he heard Mabel inhale sharply next to him.

“It’s looking at you,” she whispered and Dipper felt his blood run cold. His throat constricted and he could no longer breathe.

“Close it!” Mabel hissed. He didn’t move. “Close the door!” she yelled in panic and with great effort Dipper got his legs to move. He stepped forward despite every sense telling him to turn around and run and closed his hand over the knob. When he started to pull the door in he heard the sound again. It was right in front of him. His eyes searched the blackness for a shape or movement but he didn’t need to see. He felt it. There was something - or someone - staring at him from beyond the porch. Maybe standing on the first of the steps leading to the shack.  
He suddenly recognized the feeling. It was the same as when he had been lost in the forest before he had run into Bill. Watchful eyes observing his every move, waiting for him to realize he was being hunted.  
It took all his courage to push the thought back and pull the door shut. He thought the thing outside would block it at the last second but the lock clicked into place and Dipper turned it with shaking hands. He turned to Mabel and saw she looked as frightened as he felt.  
His eyes found Bill standing by the kitchen studying them curiously..

“What did you see?” he asked but Dipper was not able to answer him. It it wanted to come inside a piece of wood would not hold it for very long. From all the nonsense and supernatural beings they had encountered only a few had scared him as much as the one outside right now. And he hadn’t even seen it yet.

“Tell us what’s happening,” Mabel said and walked over to the demon. “Now!”

Bill sneered. “I thought you were the Mystery Twins. Find out for yourselves!”

Dipper felt Mabel tense and laid a hands on her shoulder to keep her from attacking Bill. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” Dipper asked and avoided Mabel’s eyes as she looked at him in disbelief. “Please?” he directed at Mabel but she just stared at him. “I’ll be just a second, ok?” he reassured her when she opened her mouth to protest. She closed it again and gave a reluctant nod.  
“Leave the door open,” she said and gave his hand a squeeze before leaving for the living room. Dipper followed her with his eyes and made sure she was safe then glanced at Bill and gestured to the kitchen. He waited for him to take a seat at the table then peeked between the curtains. From here he could see the trees and parts of the meadow. A half moon had risen and bathed the grass in a ghostly light.

“I didn’t expect you to be scared so easily, Pine Tree,” Bill taunted him and grinned when he received a glare in return. “What do you want to talk about?” he asked more seriously.  
Dipper moved away from the window and sat down next to him.

“A deal,” he said and Bill smirked.

“Again? And they say I’m obsessed.”

“It seems to be the only way to get information from you.” Dipper talked quietly so that Mabel wouldn’t hear when she was listening and he knew she would try.

“I can guess what you want to know,” Bill said and tilted his head in thought. “But what do I get?”

Dipper looked him straight in the eye. “I’ll let you live.”

Bill chuckled. “Nice try, Pine Tree, but the first deal is still valid, you know?”  
Dipper blinked in confusion and the demon smiled mischievously.

“I answered on of your questions already and you agreed to leave me alone until tomorrow, remember? I still have a few hours left.”

Dipper grit his teeth. He hadn’t expected this deal to turn out to be such a big problem. On the other hand it wasn’t a real deal with a demon. “So?” he asked smugly. “You can’t force me to hold up my end of the deal”

Bill’s amused expression stayed but his eyes gleamed challengingly. “You wouldn’t do that. I know you, Pine Tree. You could never ask for anything again.”

Dipper put his face in his hands. He had thought proposing another deal was a good idea but it had occurred to him so suddenly that he had no time to prepare himself. Bill knew that and now relished in his helplessness. Despite that he swore not to give up. They had to know what was threatening them. He looked at Bill through his fingers and sighed. “What do you want?”

Bill leaned closer and smiled .”Now we’re talking.” Dipper wishes he hadn’t asked. “Actually there is a little something I could use your help with,” he said and splayed his fingers in front of him.They looked even worse in the light and Dipper wondered once more what he had done with them. He watched a drop of blood fall onto the wooden table and gave the other a quizzical look.

“Do you want more pain killers? They’re addictive just so you know.”

Bill gave a short laugh. “No, but you could get me some bandaids.”

Dipper waited for the demon to tell him what he really wanted but Bill just sat there expectantly with his hands laid out. “And in exchange you will tell me what that thing outside is and where it came from?”  
He knew he was testing his luck but asking for bandaids was very suspicious so if Bill was plotting something he at least wanted to get the most out of it.  
Bill scrunched his nose and sighed. “Fine,” he said and Dipper was glad he didn’t offer to shake hands this time. “You go first.”

Dipper stood up and got the first aid-kit from the cupboard. Never had it been used that often in such a short time. He walked past the living room and saw Mabel brooding over her book. She noticed his and cocked her head questioningly. Dipper shrugged and gave her a smile to keep her at ease. Briefly he wondered what Bill had to say to the contents of the old book but dismissed the thought immediately. It was better he didn’t know they were doing research on him.  
He places the kit on the table who watched him closely as he walked back to the sink and started to wash his own hands and arms. He tried not to think about it as he scrubbed of flakes of dried blood. When he was clean he soaked a cloth and handed it to Bill. He saw him wince when it touched his broken nails. While Bill scrubbed his hands as best as he could Dipper laid out some bandages and antiseptic. He had used it only yesterday but it felt like years ago. He wondered if Bill still found pain hilarious after all he had been through.  
Under a layer of blood Bill’s skin was almost ripped to shreds. His nails were worn to the flesh and began to ooze blood when he wiped over them. Had he been digging with his bare hands. It sure needed more than a few bandaids.

“This looks like it will take some time,” Dipper said dryly as Bill wrapped the cloth around his thumb to stop the bleeding. “Why don’t you talk to me while I patch you up?”

Bill’s lips stretched into a half-smirk. “You know what they say about curiosity and the cat, Pine Tree.”  
He grinned and watched Bill pull a splinter from the tip of his index finger. Dipper looked closer and saw more of them all over his hands and fingers. Some were driven deep into his flesh. Dipper rummaged through the kit and found a pair of tweezers. He held out a hand and Bill eyed it warily.

“I will not hurt you on purpose,” he said and really meant it yet couldn’t hide a smirk. Bill scoffed but had to smile. After a moment of hesitation he put out his left hand and placed it on Dipper’s palm. Blood started to seep from his wounds again but this time Dipper didn’t mind. He had expected his fingers to be cold but they felt almost hot on his skin. He held up the tweezers then stopped.

“I’m listening,” he said urging Bill to talk. The demon looked at his hand in Dipper’s and then up at him. His face was unreadable.

“This will also take a while.”

“We have all night,” Dipper grinned.

Bill rolled his eyes and began to talk.


	13. XIII

Bill was quiet for a few minutes while he waited for Dipper to inspect his sore fingers. When he finally began to talk he watched Dipper’s reaction closely.  
“This town has always been a weird place but I guess you already suspected that,” he said. “But do you know why?”

Dipper hadn’t expected him to tell him anything useful so he was eager for every piece of information he could possibly get. He felt Bill’s gaze on him but actually managed to sound casual when he answered..  
“I always assumed it attracts the supernatural but I never stopped to wonder why,” he admitted and started to pull the splinters from his flesh. The hand in which he held the tweezers was only slightly unsteady.

Bill hummed. “Those things don’t just appear out of thin air.”

Dipper paused and looked at him. “It always seemed that way though.”

“Maybe to you,” Bill stated and Dipper could see how careful he weighed his next words. “Actually they find their way here by accident.”

Dipper tilted his head but continued his work and tried not to show his excitement. If Bill really spilled some crucial information about the origin of monsters in Gravity Falls he would involuntarily reveal something about himself.

“All around the world there a small gaps in the dimensional barrier. Most of the time they’re just tiny tears and cause no harm but sometimes the gaps are big enough to let things pass that happen to wander by.”

Dipper’s heart skipped a beat. “Dimensional barrier? So there’s dimensions full of gnomes or zombies or whatever and they just fall through a hole and end up here?”

Bill hissed as Dipper pulled a little too forcefully on a piece of wood. “Sorry.”

“Seems that way,” Bill replied cooly and Dipper suspected he didn’t want to talk about it now. “I guess some of them had no reason to go back or perhaps they couldn’t find the gap again.”

“So these gaps are like small portals?”  
Dipper found it hard to concentrate. If they were able to find one of those gaps maybe they could send Bill back through it. He tried to keep a straight face but when he glanced at Bill the other grinned at him.

“I know what you’re thinking, Pine Tree, your face makes it too easy, but no, I cannot use them to get back into the mindscape.”

Dipper felt the blood rush into his face and he cursed under his breath. He had thought only Mabel could read him so easily.

“They are also much too small,” he claimed, generously ignoring his embarrassment.  
“And they are much more powerful than a natural tear. It takes a great amount of energy to rip open the wall between the dimensions I must admit it was very smart of them to try it here where it seems to be very thin to begin with.”

“Can’t we just find one and make it bigger?” Dipper suggested and Bill shook his head slightly.

“That’s not so easy. They open and close randomly and are usually not visible.”

“Not even to you?”

“I can detect their presence if they are big enough but it’s difficult even for me.” He wiggled his fingers to get Dipper’s attention back to them who had unintentionally neglected them for a while now. He watched him pull out a dozen more splinters in silence before he started talking again.

“Sometimes when a bigger gap opens energy can cross the barrier between the dimension and manifest itself as something you would call supernatural. Like that thing outside now. It must have come through quite a large tear to take so much power with it.”

Dipper checked his hands for more splinters and when he couldn’t find any more took the other one and started the same procedure. Bill sighed contently seeming to enjoy the attention.

“What exactly is that thing except some other dimension’s energy? Why did it show up now? Nobody has seen strange things here for years. Now you show up and all hell breaks loose.”

Bill stayed quiet but Dipper didn’t dare to push him. He focused on his task and waited quietly. His patience paid off and he swore to keep his mouth shut more often around the demon. He obviously liked hearing himself talk.

“I told you it takes a lot of energy to open or close a portal. It’s not as easy as opening or shutting a door. When Stanford and Stanley opened it the balance of energy was disturbed and the gaps closed in response.”

“Does that mean the gaps are opening again? Why now?” Dipper thought aloud and Bill gestured towards the window and the dark forest beyond it.

“Looks like your mysteries are back.”

Dipper didn’t know what to think of this. Part of him was excited to go hunting again but another one, though very small, had put all that behind him and wanted his regular life back. Yet he couldn’t expect his relatives to take up the job again. They were not getting any younger.

“How do we fight it?” he asked pushing that small doubting part of him to the back of his mind.

Bill kept silent and Dipper concluded that was one too many question. He pulled out the last tiny splinter and soaked a piece of cotton in antiseptic.  
“This will hurt,” he warned shortly before dapping at Bill’s fingers.

“I’ve had worse,” the other said but he inhaled sharply when he touched the gashes on his nail beds.

“You still haven’t told me what that monster is, though,” Dipper reminded him trying to distract him from the pain. “It scared a bunch of people really badly and they are usually not known for their cowardness.”

Bill tried to keep a straight face but his lips were a thin line and he could not hide his discomfort so easily any more. Dipper reprimanded himself for feeling pity again. He started to warp the first finger in bandages after he had made sure it would not start bleeding again.

“I’ve seen it a couple of times,” Bill finally said between deep breaths. “But it’s always different.”

“Like a shape shifter?” Dipper intercepted remembering the bug-like monster from the underground laboratory with a shudder.

“Kind of like that. But also not,” Bill said quietly watching him put a band-aid on a number of small cuts. “It doesn’t have a real shape to begin with.”

Dipper paused. “No shape?” He imagined a cloud of black smoke drifting through the woods and wondered if that could have scared Dan and the others so badly. “It must have some kind of body. Mabel said they saw wolves and a boar.”

“Maybe they did,” Bill said and Dipper could see he was waiting for him to catch on.

“But you just said it doesn’t have a shape. Were they imagining it?”

Bill gave him an appreciative look and all the pieces clicked into place.

“They didn’t see anything,” Dipper said slowly getting the picture and didn’t realize he was talking out loud again. He felt Bill’s eyes on him. “They just thought they did.”

Wolves or boars were the most logical explanation when you thought something was watching you behind trees. Dipper recalled the terror he had felt alone in the darkness and could imagine why they had fled. The darkness itself may have even been part of the thing’s power.

“If it doesn’t have a physical shape how can we fight it?”

Bill shrugged and he sighed. “Right. Too many questions.” He ignored Bill’s amused grin and bandaged the rest of his hand. He had tried not to put them on too tightly but they still greatly restricted his movements. Bill didn’t look particularly happy about that when he flexed his fingers tentatively.

“Don’t move them too much or you’ll bleed through it and I have to do it all over again.” Dipper closed the kit and got up to put it back on the cupboard.

“Don’t worry about that,” Bill said. “They’ll heal quickly.”

Dipper turned to him. “What were you doing anyway?” He didn’t really care if Bill got annoyed by his questions or if he got an answer or not. He had to ask regardless. “Did you summon it or something?”

To his surprise the demon shook his head. “Like i said, it probably came from a gap. A rather large one I presume.

Dipper looked at him intently as he pulled at the bandages around his joints. “How can I be sure you’re telling the truth?

Bill looked up at him and stared back. “You can’t. But I thought we agreed on working together so why would I lie?”

“Then stop being so secretive about everything,” Dipper scoffed. “We wouldn’t need stupid deals and this would all be over sooner.”

“Listen, Pine Tree,” Bill snapped at him and got up from his chair. “All I want is to get back to the mindscape. I tell you everything you need to know so let me worry about the rest, are we clear?”

Dipper growled. “You barely told me anything! I still don’t know how you got here or what to do about that monster out there.” He was raising his voice. “Why won’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s not important,” Bill said quieter trying to calm him down but it only made him more angry. “Everything will be how it was once I’m back in my dimension. Trust me for once.”

Dipper was ready to lash out again when he noticed Mabel standing in the door. He felt embarrassed for losing his cool around Bill once again. “Are you ok?” he asked her and she gave him a thoughtful look.

“Can you help me with something?”

Dipper looked at Bill who had sat down again and turned his face away. “Sure.”  
He followed her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. When they reached the landing she looked over to the handrail to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“I realized something,” she whispered and pulled Dipper along the hallway. “I was reading the book and there was nothing in it about real demons. It’s just a collection of medieval beliefs and pseudoscientific speculations.”

“So?” Dipper asked curiously and Mabel sighed in frustration.

“Don’t you get it? Why would Grunkle Stan have such a useless book in his room in the first place?”

Dipper looked at her helplessly. “He’s a weird guy. Maybe he needed it for his research.”

“I saw the other books too,” she continued “but none of them have any connection to the mysteries Ford was studying.”

“That means...what?” Dipper asked and slowly started to feel very stupid.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Mabel said and her eyes gleamed. “All the good books are somewhere else.  
It suddenly dawned on Dipper and he walked past Grunkle Stan’s bedroom door and to the one next to it. “Ford’s room?” He turned the knob but the door didn’t budge. “It’s locked.”

Mabel sighed. “He probably hid the key somewhere. It also means there’s something inside he doesn’t want us to stumble upon by accident.”

“It will take forever to find the key. What if he’s taken it with him?”

Mabel raised one eyebrow slightly. “I’m not asking you to help me find a key,” she said and pulled out a screwdriver from her pocket.

“You want us to break in? Are you nuts?”

Mabel hushed him and pointed to the door where he noticed long scratched between the lock and the frame. She had obviously already tried to open it but if it was locked it wouldn’t work that way. He imagined kicking in the door and only finding more useless books. How would they explain that? Not even the presence of a demon would be an excuse good enough for Ford.. Yet the thought that he was hiding something from them irked him. He had been under the impression that they trusted each other after everything that happened.  
He kneeled in front of the door and Mabel handed him the tool. They keyhole was too small to use it as a lock pick.

“We could try a paperclip but I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Mabel disappeared into the bathroom and returned with one of her hairpins. “You think that could work?”

He shrugged one shoulder and Mabel dropped it in his outstretched hands. It fit perfectly but once inside he could do little more than poke around aimlessly. This wasn’t as easy as he had hoped.

“Maybe we can go through the window?” Mabel suggested. “The one in Grunkle Stan’s room should be right next to it.”

Dipper shook his head still trying to get the pin to work. “It’s easier to open this door than a window from the outside and we it’s not like we can just climb along the wall..”

Mabel pulled a face for rejecting her ideas but all his attention was focused on the lock. He angled the pin and managed to slide it in further. When he tried to move it he got stuck on a notch. He gave it a twist and heard a quiet click. They both held their breath. Dipper turned it further trying to keep his hands steady. When he applied more force the pin gave way and with a clank broke in half. He almost screamed in frustration. He tried to get the other half out of the keyhole but it wouldn’t move.

Mabel let out a long breath. “Let’s try again. I have loads of these.”

Dipper shook his head. “Maybe the window isn’t such a bad idea after all.”

She smiled and took the broken piece from his hand. “We can try tomorrow. It will be easier in the daylight.”

Dipper didn’t rise from the floor. They had to get into that room now. There was no guarantee that there would even be any daylight tomorrow with that thing around. After all it had enveloped the forest into the deepest night. He feared that the same had already happened to the shack.

“You think that monster can hurt us?” Mabel suddenly asked breaking his train of thoughts.

“It didn’t hurt any of the others, did it?” He managed to sound calm and reassuring but her face stayed solemn.

“I heard you and Bill talking,” she went on quietly and averted his eyes but Dipper was not surprised. “Nothing that came from another dimension has ever been truly peaceful.”

Dipper was lost for words. He wanted to comfort her but his head was blank. “I don’t remember reading about anything like that in the journal,” he said after a while. “It could be something different this time. If it didn’t hurt anybody maybe it’s not evil at all. It could be gone already.”  
As soon as the words had left his mouth he regretted them. Mabel saw through his lie instantly and frowned. “Don’t be stupid. You know as well as I do that something powerful and malicious is out there. It may be something nobody has ever encountered and what is not in the journals but that doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.”

“You’re right,” he said turning back to the door ashamed. “Sorry. I just wish I could do more than sit around and argue with Bill. He’s not helping either.”

“You don’t have to do everything by yourself, you know?” she said gently. “I’m here for you.”

“Yes, I know, thanks. You’re the only one who actually does something around here.”

She rolled her eyes but a smile tugged at her lips.

“I’ll watch Bill. I don’t feel comfortable leaving him all to himself.

“Be careful, ok?” he said and watched her descend the stairs. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

He heard her talk to Bill but couldn’t make out the words. If there was trouble he could be with her in a few seconds. He forced himself to stop worrying and picked up the screwdriver again to pull out the rest of the pin from the keyhole. He thought about trying Mabel’s method of opening the door but the risk of breaking the lock and jamming it for good was too high. The door was opening to the inside so there were no hinges he could unscrew.  
He sighed in defeat and got up to stretch his legs. As he stood his eyes fell on a small gap on the collar of the knob. Without much thought he used the screwdriver and poked at it. To his surprise the knob came loose and when he pulled it slid off easily. He put it on the floor and found another gap and found it on the metal plate surrounding the knob. It needed a few tries to get it off but when it did, revealed another plate held in place by a pair of screws.  
Dipper’s heart raced in his chest and he willed himself to calm down. There was no guarantee that he could get inside like this. He was merely disassembling some metal pieces. If it didn’t work he could just put it back together and in contrast to Mabel’s attempt it would not leave any evidence. He took out the screws and pried of the second plate. The lock’s mechanism came into view and Dipper almost cheered, hadn’t he been holding his breath. He forced the screwdriver in and pushed it to the side. There was a click and the door swung open.

The room behind it was as dark as Grunkle Stan’s, the air equally hot and stale. Dipper looked over his shoulder to assure himself he was alone then stepped over the metal pieces and flicked the light switch.

A single light bulb on the ceiling came to life with a flicker. Apparently they hadn’t felt like installing a complete lamp which gave the room an uncomfortable almost sterile atmosphere. The light hung over a neatly made bed in the middle of the room. To his right stood a big desk littered with scraps of paper, printed news articles and handwritten notes.  
When Dipper reached out a hand to pick up one that looked like it had been written recently he noticed a giant bookshelf to his left. It held three or four times the number of books as the one in the other room. These were dusted and clean and as far as he could read then even sorted by title.  
He was eager to take out some of them but was also scared they were as random and boring as those in Grunkle Stan's room. He decided to come back later and he and Mabel could look through them strategically. They also had to think of a way to distract Bill. He hoped Mabel had thought of a good excuse for his absence. Nevertheless he should go back to the kitchen soon to not raise any more suspicion in the demon.

He picked up the pieces of the lock and started to put them back together. He would leave it unlocked and hoped Bill wouldn't wonder about the door leaning open. The doorknob clicked into place and he was about to flick the switch when he spotted a familiar shape in the lower part of the bookshelf. His breath caught in his throat and he leapt across the room not caring about closing the door.  
He pulled out the book and held it with trembling hands. The cover was badly burned and the edge of the pages were blackened but the golden six fingered hand and the number 3 were still clearly visible.

It was his journal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Fanart by Damare](http://damaredesigns.tumblr.com/post/122633707153/fanart-for-orphancrickets-newest)


	14. XIV

Dipper turned the pages with shaking fingers. The joy upon finding the journal had quickly turned into a sickening feeling of disappointment.  
Most of the pages were torn to shreds or burned so badly they crumbled at his touch. The few that were mostly intact were stained with ash or missing important parts of writing. He had spent so much time reading through it over and over again when he was a kid that he still knew some of the crucial information by heart.  
It hurt him to see all that work destroyed.

He pulled out the two books next in line and discovered that journal number 1 and 2 showed the same amount of damage.  
This was a big blow to his initially good mood. If there had been anything in them about the monster it was now gone. He’d never had the chance to read the other two journals as careful as the one he considered his own. Ford must have gone back and dug the up. He probably kept them for nostalgic reasons. Dipper hugged the books to his chest and turned to leave. He didn’t want to stay in this room any longer.

After the turning the light off and making sure the door wouldn’t lock again he swiftly crossed the hallway to his and Mabel’s bedroom and dumped the books on his bed. He threw the blanket over them and after checking that Mabel and Bill were still downstairs got his rapid breathing under control. The books weren’t a total loss, he told himself. There was still hope of finding a snippet of information somewhere in them. Before he left he glanced at his bed from the door. The bulge of the books was barely visible and he assumed them safe for now. He walked down the stairs and entered the kitchen when the smell of onions filled his nose. Mabel stirred them in a pan while Bill watched in fascination.

“Help me with the vegetables?” she asked as she noticed him.

He walked over wordlessly and took a knife from the drawer. As he did Bill glanced at him momentarily then quickly turned his gaze to Mabel. She handed Dipper two red peppers and a small bundle of scallions.

“Looks like chef Mabel’s famous omelette,” he said and she flashed him a toothy smile.

“Bill said he was hungry so I thought I’d whip something up.” Dipper looked over his shoulders and saw the demon smile sweetly at him. He rolled his eyes. “I’d let you do some cutting too but I don’t trust you with a knife.”

Bill laughed. “You don’t either way. With or without a knife.”

Dipper scoffed and turned back to mincing the peppers.

“How did it go?” Mabel asked casually and Dipper hoped the sound of the cooking onions concealed their voices.  
“I’ll show you later.”

Mabel gave him a long look and Dipper feared she would ask further. Instead she looked away and started to crack eggs into a bowl.  
“It looks liked the monster disappeared into the forest again,” she said as she added some spices and salt.

“How do you know?” Dipper asked alarmed. “You weren’t outside to check, were you?”

“No,” Mabel said sheepishly but Dipper’s relief only lasted for a second. “He was.” She gestured towards Bill and Dipper’s stomach twisted.

“No, don’t freak,” Bill blurted out. “I was just making sure it wouldn’t break down a door or window. I didn’t even go beyond the porch.”

“You think it could do that?” Dipper asked wondering if he was telling the truth.

“Possible,” Bill said. “But I don’t know how powerful it is in this dimension.” He leaned back and smiled innocently. “Don’t look at me like that,” he added as Dipper scowled at him. “Aren’t you glad I went instead of Shooting Star?”

Dipper couldn’t think of anything to say back to him so he focused on cutting the rest.of the vegetables. He had thought Bill knew everything about the monster and just didn’t feel like telling him. His behavior was very strange. Maybe he didn’t know was much as he had made him believe. However, if that was the case all his hope now rested with the journals.

 

He helped Mabel with the food and soon they were sitting in front of steaming omelettes on their plates. While Dipper poked around listlessly Bill finished his share in huge bites and had the audacity to ask for seconds. Mabel was flattered by his appetite and apparent liking for her cooking but Dipper shot him a warning glare. He ate half his omelette and stretched his back.

“I think I’ll hit the hay,” he said yawning and found he sounded very convincing. Mabel didn’t look at him directly. Dipper thought she was afraid of her face betraying her in front of Bill. They needn’t have worried. The demon was too busy lunging for his half-eaten portion and pushing it onto his own plate.

“Good night,” she said and turned to shoot him a quick smile.

Dipper struggled to walk up the stairs too quickly. He took his time in the bathroom but didn’t bother with a shower. He tossed his clothes onto the growing pile next to the washing machine and put one a fresh shirt and pair of boxers.  
When he at last closed the bedroom door behind him his heart was racing with anticipation. He pulled out the journal one after the other and flopped onto the mattress.  
He went through the third journal again more slowly than the first time to assess the damage, It took him only about half an hour to read everything that was still legible which was a small fraction of the time he had spent with it when he was younger. The last quarter of the book only consisted of a large hole burned right through the pages. He put it on the floor and reached for the journal number 1 when the door creaked open. Acting quickly he threw his pillow over the pile of books next to his bed and tucked the one he was holding under the blanket. Mabel stepped inside and he sighed in relief.

“It’s cool, bro. Bill’s washing up right now but he said he’ll sleep downstairs.”

Dipper felt a pang of embarrassment as he imagined Bill demanding to sleep next to him again and was glad he had spared him the situation.

“Did you get inside Ford’s room?” she asked interrupting his train of thoughts. Dipper grinned and pulled out the journal.

Mabel’s eyes went wide and she clasped a hand over her mouth. “I thought they got destroyed.”

Dipper shrugged and showed the burnt and ripped pages to her. “Kind of. There’s not much left of them.”

Mabel glanced behind her. “I’ll take care of Bill then we can talk.”  
She pulled the blanket Bill had slept in the previous night off his bed and piled it in her arms. “I’ll give him one of your boxer shorts to sleep in, ok?”  
She walked over to the dresser and pulled them out before he could protest. Mabel never cared much for his personal space so her rummaging through his underwear did not surprise him.

“If we keep this up I’ll run out of clothes for myself,” Dipper said as she pushed the door open with her foot.

“He can have some of my stuff tomorrow.” She winked at him and Dipper chuckled at the thought.

When she returned a short time later in her pyjamas he was already halfway through the first journal and getting increasingly frustrated. Not only was a big part of it impossible to read it also had nothing that came to explaining the forest monster.

“You don’t look too happy,” Mabel said and picked up one of the books from the floor. “Haven’t found anything yet?”

Dipper dropped the book onto his legs and sighed. “I thought they had all the answers and now look at this!” He held up his soot covered hands.

Mabel’s face was full of pity. “Maybe the answer is not in the journals.”

Dipper scoffed. “I already tried that but Bill won’t tell me anything either so forget that.”

She smiled at him cheekily. “Actually I was thinking about the other books in the room.”

He blinked. “You’ve been inside?”

Mabel flipped back her hair dramatically. “Of course. I won’t let you have all the fun by yourself.”  
She took journal number 3 with her and turned on the light next to her bed. “Let’s look at them together in the morning, ok? But now let’s see if there’s a secret message hidden somewhere!”

She made a nest with her blanket and started to flip through the book. Dipper watched her study the burn marks with concentration. Mabel had always had the gift to lighten him up almost instantly no matter how bad the situation seemed at first. And she was right, he thought. The world would look different the next day and they were much faster when they worked together.  
He paged through the rest of the journals with more motivation even though he found nothing helpful again. When he got to the last page he heard soft snoring coming from Mabel’s bed. She had fallen asleep with the book in front of her.  
Dipper walked over and took it off her lap. Before he switched off the light he gently pulled the blanket over her and she snuggled in it without waking.  
He looked at her and felt remorse. While she had been reading up on demons and trying to force open Ford’s room he had slept half of the day. He vowed to make it up to her and not rest until he had made some progress. He piled the journals on his bed again and in the dim glow of his desk lamp read through all of them again.

Over the course of nearly two hours he had turned every page at least twice, had tried to reconstruct the missing letters and drawings from his mind and had covered his legs and mattress with a thin layer of ash and crumbs of paper. When he reached the last page for the third time tonight he felt his concentration had slowly started to slip away. He stretched his arms and legs and suppressed a yawn. He could sleep when this was over, he scolded himself and flipped open the book again at random. It showed one part of the pattern the Stan’s had used to open the portal. The maze-like structure was still intact for the most part a big hole had burned right through the center.  
He opened the other two books on the corresponding pages and laid them out in front of him. One was missing a chunk at the corner, the other one its entire left half. He wondered if Ford or maybe even Stan were able to remember the missing parts and his thoughts immediately turned to Bill. He had to know the pattern!

“And then?” he asked himself out loud before he could get too invested in the idea. Would he be powerful enough to open a portal that way on his own? And what if that wasn’t the end of it? What if he wouldn’t just leave?  
If he had the power to open a portal he could do much worse so why would he stop there?  
Dipper rubbed his forehead to stop his imagination from running wild. If he could have opened a portal he would have done so already.

He took a few calming breaths and looked at the pattern again. He thought about what Bill had told him about the gaps between the dimensions. If he knew so much about them maybe he had come here through one of them himself. Dipper’s breathing become more rapid as his head tried to put the pieces of information together.  
Bill must of course have looked for one gap that led to the mindscape but had ended up here because it was the closest dimension he could get to. That would explain why his powers were so limited. They must still be in the other dimension. Thoughts and ideas no raced through Dipper’s head and he was unable to stop them.  
But were they really? He remembered the time Bill had possessed his body and back then he didn’t have any supernatural powers at all. He had been restrained by his physical form and human body. Even now he should only be nothing more than a human but he had changed his appearance completely and healed more quickly than any normal person could.

I’ve never left the mindscape before.

Bill’s words rang in his head and he feared they were beginning to make sense. When he taken over Dipper’s body - or more accurately his mind - Bill’s powers had stayed in the mindscape but if he could somehow transfer them into this dimension he would become as powerful here as he had been in his own dimension. A shiver ran down Dipper’s back and he looked nervously at his sister who was still sound asleep.  
They had thought they had defeated Bill by banishing to another dimension but in reality they had given him the opportunity to take over theirs. No wonder he wasn’t as angry and vengeful as Dipper had imagined him to be. He could get his revenge on them easily it was just a matter of time.  
Despite what he had just concluded his head felt a lot clearer now. He finally knew how Bill had gotten here and could guess where the limit to his powers were. Now he would work on a way to stop him.

He looked back at the journals. They might not help him with the monster but they had some notes on Bill and he was sure they would prove useful eventually. He flipped through the pages until he found the drawing of Bill and the symbols surrounding him. The picture was partly destroyed but he thought he could redraw it from memory. As he looked closer he saw the summoning spell was still intact. He had ignored it before because he had been looking for something else but now that he was focused on the demon an idea formed in his head. If they were able to reverse the effect of the summoning they could send Bill back into the mindscape before he could get his full power back. Maybe he could even convince him to help. After all going back was what he wanted. Or at least that’s what he told them. If he had been lying about that he would find out this way and think of something else.

With this thought Dipper decided it was time to get some sleep too. He needed all his strength if he wanted to confront Bill first thing tomorrow.  
He closed the books and hid them under his bed next to the night stand. He wouldn’t want Bill to find them by accident and he couldn’t be too careful. It was still possible he was hiding his true strength to be lulled into a false sense of security. Perhaps he was only waiting for the right moment.

His thoughts wandered back to the monster again and he wondered if it was part of Bill’s plan. It had to be taken care of first but he still didn’t know what it was exactly. Not even the Stans had seen or heard about it before. As dangerous as it seemed it must have come through a pretty large gap and would not be easily convinced to leave again.. Dipper reached for the light and when it went out stared into the darkness around him. He was not scared of the dark per se but he had a vivid imagination he frequently told himself and he was scared of what could hide in it. This thought triggered another and he suddenly knew where the monster had come from. He got up so fast his head was spinning but he didn’t slow down. Without turning the light back on he crossed the room and felt his way along the hallway and down the stairs.  
When he reached the living room his rational thinking caught up with him but it was too late.

“What do you want?”  
Bill’s voice was slurred with sleep but nonetheless intimidating. Dipper saw him move on the sofa and kick back his blanket. In the faint light he could barely make out his expression and he started to feel very stupid acting so impulsively.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” Dipper asked and it took all the courage he could muster. Why didn’t he wait until the next day and plan out his accusations more meticulously?

Bill groaned and threw his arms over his face. “Do we have to discuss this now? Aren’t you tired?”

Dipper stood his ground. “Why didn’t you tell me it came from the mindscape?”

Bill stopped moving and Dipper’s breathing was loud in his ears. It was eerily quiet for a minute and then Bill turned on his stomach and finally looked at him. He couldn’t see his eyes but the feeling he got was enough to make him wish he hadn’t come unprepared.

“I told you I’d seen it before,” he said calmly. “I thought you would get the hint, Pine Tree.”

Dipper knew he was provoking him so he pressed his lips together and said nothing. Bill exhaled and sat up. He could see the moonlight reflect on his hair and bare shoulders.  
“You woke me up to tell me this? … Well you figured it out, good for you. Can I go back to sleep now?”

“I know what it is, too,” Dipper said quickly and Bill leaned closer.

“Is that so?”

The realization had come only just now and Dipper wondered why it had taken him so long to get it.

“It’s a nightmare, isn’t it?”

He saw Bill grin despite the low light and he wasn’t sure if he should be proud or scared.

“Finally,” Bill said appreciatively and and his heart skipped a beat. “So do you know what to do about it?” he asked eagerly.

Dipper paused. “There was nothing in the journal about fighting a nightmare,” he said slowly thinking about the stack under his bed.

“Forget that stupid journal for once,” Bill spar angrily. “And think for yourself!”

Dipper moved to the window and looked outside. Now he really wished he had turned on at least a single light. As far as he knew they had never encountered something as vague and ghostly as a nightmare before. Not in this dimension that was.  
He watched the tree tops move in the wind.

“How does one defeat a nightmare that has become real?" he asked quietly.

Bill hummed. "The same way you would in the mindscape I guess."

Goose bumps formed on Dipper's arms.

"By facing it."


	15. XV

“Where you’re going?” Bill asked as Dipper turned away from the window and headed for the back door.

“What does it look like?” He opened it and heard Bill’s footsteps approaching.

“Now? You’re going outside NOW?”

Dipper crossed the porch and stepped down onto the grass before Bill had the chance to hold him back. And also before his fear got the better of him. If he thought about this too much now he was sure to change his mind. By then it could be too late. He wanted that monster gone as soon as possible and he didn’t want to get Mabel involved.

The door fell closed behind him and the sound made him jump. He looked back but Bill was nowhere to be seen. He swallowed around the slowly forming lump in his throat and started to walk. The forest lay eerily quiet before him, the tree tops melting into the starless sky. Grey clouds hung low and reflected a pale moon. The light was enough to let Dipper see as far as his arms could reach but was too low to penetrate the dense canopy. He moved steadily towards the edge of the forest and felt his feet become heavier with every step. He would not turn around now. He had been in this situation many times now - if only in his sleep - and he was convinced he was perfectly capable of handling it. At least he told himself this.

During his time growing up he had had similar nightmares and he guessed most people did. The reason he was so scared of the thing in the forest was the same why he was afraid of the dark. It was the fear of the unknown. A monster with no shape and the ability to turn into anything that scared people the most by stirring their imagination to come up with the most frightening thing they could possibly envision had its greatest power over them when they were running from it. Nothing was as terrifying as the inability to tell what was behind you.

Dipper himself had suffered from several of these nightmares over the last few years and it was only after he had read up on them and built up the courage to fight them that he had ceased to wake up in the middle of the night panting and bathed in cold sweat. The method was simple and he recited it in his head as his bare feet touched the layer of pine needles that covering the forest ground. Keep calm, don't run, open your eyes. 

It was very effective yet impossible to follow the first few times he try tried it. The most difficult part was keeping still and waiting for whatever was hunting you to come close enough to get a good look at it. Once you did there was no reason to run anymore and his dreams would then change into another or dissolve entirely. It had taken lots of practice and heaps of setbacks but he had eventually gotten the hang of it. He just hoped it worked the same way if the nightmare was a real one. He heard the rustle of leaves nearby and decided it was too late to back out. He reminded himself to keep breathing evenly and his legs to stand still. No matter what he saw now when he turned around would be as horrible as the feeling of running from the unknown. He held his breath to keep from screaming and turned his head around.  
There was a naked man walking towards him. Dipper tilted his head. Of all the things he had expected this definitely was the weirdest. It took him an embarrassing long time to grasp the situation.

"Don't just run off! You don't know what you're doing."

It was only Bill and to Dipper's relief he wasn't naked but wearing nothing except his boxers.

"Why are you following me?" Dipper asked when he was capable of a coherent thought again.

"You can't do this by yourself, Pine Tree, you don't know what you're up against."

Dipper scoffed. "And you would help me? For some reason I find that hard to believe."

"I don't care what you believe. All you need to know is that it's too powerful to be fought by a single human in their pyjamas."

Dipper scoffed and wanted to comment on Bill's own appearance when he noticed him carrying something small in his hand. The demon followed his gaze and a flash of light reflected on its surface as he held it up.

"You brought a knife?" Dipper asked and felt both bemused and scared. It was not much bigger that a butter knife and had become dull over many years of use.

"If we can hurt it, wouldn't a gun be more practical?" Grunkle Stan probably had one in his room.  
Bill smirked and stepped closer not lowering the blade. Dipper felt his heart sink.  
Had he really been this stupid to be tricked into entering the forest at night with no means of defending himself in company of a demon? Had Bill been planning this all along?

"You always assume the worst," Bill chuckled and dropped his arm. "Don't be scared of me."

"I'm not," Dipper said stubbornly. "But why do you need a fucking knife?"

Bill walked past him deeper into the woods and gestured Dipper to follow him. At first he was reluctant to leave the spot from where he could still see the shack but his curiosity was stronger. He took one look back and prayed it wouldn't be his last.

When he caught up to Bill who was walking walking rather briskly the soles of his feet were already sore and his battered joints started to hurt again. The demon stopped several times and searched the forest with his eyes before continuing. Dipper glanced at the knife nervously while he waited for the demon to adjust the direction in which they headed. After several of these stops Bill finally seemed to know their destination and he felt him relax a little.

"Are you going to tell me what we're doing or do I have to find out for myself again?" Dipper asked dryly. Bill glanced at him but kept up his pace and didn't reply for another solid minute.

"I was actually trying to make a deal with you," he finally said and checked his surroundings again. "But since you decided to take things into your own hands I had no other choice than to help you without one. I guess I'm just too nice."

"What is it with you and deals?" Dipper asked climbing over a rotting tree. "Don't you want to get rid of the monster too? It was going to attack you!"

Bill laughed cynically. "Why would it? I used to control it."

Dipper stopped. "Used to?"

"I don't have any powers, remember?" Bill explained without waiting for him. The thorns and branches grazing his skin and piercing his feet didn't slow him down at all.

"Then how do we stop it? With that knife?"

Bill chuckled. "It will definitely make things easier, you'll see."

Dipper barred his teeth at him but of course Bill didn't notice. He was too far ahead and focused on something else. What was he looking for? He had the feeling they were not getting any closer to the nightmare.  
Dipper didn't recognize this part of the forest but after walking for so long everything had started to look the same. It could be the place where he and Mabel had run into the search party but also somewhere he had never been before. All he knew was that they were constantly moving further into the woods. Bill on the other hand seemed to know exactly where he wanted to go.  
Dipper concentrated on finding the safest slots to put his aching feet as he tried to keep up with him that he didn't notice when the other suddenly slowed. Bill traded along more carefully now and his eyes searched the trunks of the trees around him. He circled a group of smaller trees and then stopped in front of a larger one nearby. Its branches fanned out like a roof and the top of it disappeared into the black sky above.

Dipper came to his side and saw a pattern etched into its bark about four feet above the roots. It was as big as his hand and consisted of two lines which formed a strange horizontal ellipsis with pointed corners and a third one that stood vertical in its center. It looked like a misshapen eye. Tree sap had started to fill the sloppy lines which looked like they were created in a hurry. As Dipper looked at it more closely he saw traces of black paint in its edges.

"What is that?" he asked and ran the tip of his fingers over the cut in the middle. The edges were rough and uneven.

"It's a seal," Bill said matter-of-factly and started walking again.  
Dipper waited for further explanation but the distance between them was growing gradually and he ran the risk of losing sight of the demon. He pulled back his hand and went after him.

“A seal?” he repeated. “What for?”

Bill glanced back at the tree but it had faded into the darkness. “There’s a portal here that leads into the mindscape,” he said and Dipper’s heart jumped into his throat. He restrained himself from blurting out more questions but it took a lot of effort. As he looked around he remembered they were invisible and he would not be able to spot it. He had to rely on Bill.

“I found it by accident when I was looking for the nightmare,” Bill explained. “I was only able to form a part of the seal before those humans interrupted me.” He glanced at Dipper. “And then I found you lost in the woods.”

Dipper felt heat rise into his already flushed face. “You made that?” he asked ignoring his last sentence.

Bill held up his bandaged hand without turning around. “There is another one about a quarter mile from here,” he continued but Dipper wasn't listening. He was distracted by the thought of him clawing the symbol into the bark with his bare hands, breaking nails and tearing skin. It must have hurt like hell and he even had to do it twice. He realized that it wasn’t paint he had found around the marks.

“What does it do?” he asked and wiped his hands on his shirt.

Bill’s voice had turned into a whisper and Dipper looked around nervously. “It enables me to open the gap further. If we can lure the nightmare in the area marked with the seals I can try to force it back into the mindscape.

“I see,” Dipper said thoughtfully and followed Bill through a field of dead branches. “How many do we need?” he asked trying to make as little noise as possible but it was impossible not to step on them and one broke with a loud crack. Bill found his way more easily barely making a sound as he moved.

“Three” he said shortly.

Of course, Dipper thought, a triangle. He suddenly felt a sharp pain, lifted his foot and pulled a large splinter from his heel. He would need a tetanus shot after this.

They had been walking for quite some time now and there was no sign of the monster anywhere.  
“What if it’s gone somewhere else?” Dipper asked imagining it running rampage through the town. “If it’s left this part of the forest?”

Bill slowed to a stop and turned around. “That’s why I brought you,” he said coldly and Dipper stopped at the sound of his voice. He was too startled to move.

“I thought you weren’t scared of me, Pine Tree,” Bill mocked him and came closer. He smiled when Dipper took a step back instinctively. In the distance they could hear the wind moving through the leaves.

“I thought you would help me fight it,” Dipper hissed and at the same time scolded himself for his naivete. Sometimes he could be really dense.

"Oh I AM helping you," Bill grinned. "But someone has to act as bait and it can't be me."

Dipper felt an icy hand claw at his guts and his heart slammed into his ribs as the meaning of those words sank into him. His mouth was too dry to swallow and the sound of rushing water was getting steadily closer.

Suddenly they're eye eyes on him and his breath caught. The pain in his lungs and feet from their long walk was tuned out completely by the sudden force at which terror rushed into him. Darkness descended upon him like a blanket and made it difficult to see and impossible to breathe. He wanted to run but his legs were like led. The plan he had prepared just a few minutes ago was drowned by the horrible feeling of being chased. A silence pressed onto his ears like he was under water and his skin was turning cold. He passed his eyelids together and his hands over his ears waiting for the inevitable. Every nerve in his body was telling him to get out of here but one small part of his brain kept him from panicking.  
Keep calm, it told him and he forced all his concentration towards that. Don't run. He tried to move his stiff legs but instead of breaking into a run he stepped backwards. He could feel the presence of the nightmare all around him. He forced his throat to relax and breathed in the cool air while slowly getting himself under control.

The silence was broken by a low hissing sound that filled the air around him. It swelled and faded as it seemed to move around him. When it stopped right behind his back the hair in his neck and arms bristled. Open your eyes, Dipper told himself. Turn around and look at it.  
It had worked for him during many nightmares but he had never had one that felt so real. Doubt crept into his mind and he started to wonder what would happen if it didn't work. He usually woke before he was able to find out.

A trickle of sweat moved around his eyebrow and ran along his cheek. He had to do something now or he would go crazy with dread, he thought. It was already too late anyway. What would become of Mabel if he didn't return tonight?  
The thought of his sister reminded him that it didn't matter what happened to him as long as she was safe and made him find the courage to not give up without a fight.  
He turned around. First his shoulders and back then his legs.  
His eyes were still shut tightly but the movement had lifted a little of the tension in his muscles. He felt the shifting of air in his skin and his hands balled into fists. He would not run. He would open his eyes and gave it. His eyelids relaxed and he glanced beneath his lashes.

At first he wasn't sure if his eyes were still working. He couldn't see anything but black. He struggled to take breaths that were more than just gaps for air and tried to make our a shape in the darkness, something his eyes could hold onto and make sense of. He blinked a few times to assure himself they were still open but his surroundings didn't change. The hissing had changed into a low growl and seemed to shift with his gaze which made it unable to pinpoint. He was left disoriented and shaking with fear. The urge to flee was overwhelming and he didn't know how much longer he would be able to withstand it.

All of a sudden something grabbed his upper arm and he screamed. Rough fingers closed over his skin and he stumbled backwards trying to shake it off. A second hand clasped his elbow and pulled him back.

"Don't move!"  
Bill's voice sounded as if it was coming from a great distance even though he had to be standing right next to him. "It can't hurt you."

Dipper tried to calm down and the grip on his arm loosened. He focused on the nothingness in front of him and gradually began to see something. The trees and branches came into view and he could even make out a patch of night sky above them. He looked down and spotted a giant shadow moving around him like the edge of a stormy black sea. It was disintegrating and reforming as it slithered across the forest floor batting it in absolute blackness.

No shape, Dipper thought and watched in awe and terror alike as figures formed among its unruly borders. A human form stepped out of the wavering mass and reached out a bony hand. Dipper gasped and Bill's hand which now held onto his wrist gave him a reassuring squeeze. Open your eyes, look at it, Dipper reminded himself quietly and started into the figure's eyeless face. It seemed to melt and was washed away only to be replaced by a pack of growling shadow animals. Their teeth snapped at his ankles as they moved around him covering his feet in icy cold air. Their distorted heads and limbs flowed into one another constantly changing their numbers.

Dipper scrapped the remainder of his courage together and kicked one that came too close. It shed its form and his foot went through empty space. The others vanished with it and a wall of darkness built up right before him and threatened to devour him with large teeth and grasping claws.  
Dipper's eyes were rendered useless again as the darkness engulfed him and his ears filled with deafening silence. He clasped his hand over Bill's to have something to hold on to and reached out the other one in front of him. He expected to touch scales or fur or even skin but once again he moved right through it and felt a rush of air as the nightmare pulled back.  
He took a step forward before something it formed into something else and the black mass retracted. The trees and sky were beginning to take shape again and the light of the moon pushed back the shadow around him.

Dipper watched half-formed creatures emerge from the quivering waves and disappear almost instantly while the blackness slowly faded. With it the feeling of dread and surreality lifted and exhaustion washed over him. After a few more moments it was gone and had left the forest as it has always been. As if it hadn’t even been there.  
Dipper wiped the sweat off his forehead and turned to Bill.

His left hand was pressed against the bark of the nearest tree and Dipper spotted another eye symbol on it. The lines were smoother this time and Dipper concluded he had carved it with the knife. Bill's other hand still held his and Dipper dropped it as if burned as he realized it.

Even though the nightmare had vanished it was still the darkest of nights and he could not see Bill's face. Yet his posture and breathing told him he was not much better off himself. A few moments passed before either of them was able to speak.

"What happened?" Dipper asked when the tightness in his chest had passed. His vocal cords felt like sandpaper.

"Let's go back first," Bill suggested and Dipper had no reason to argue about that.  
He took one last look at the tree with the seal etched into it then followed Bill across a small clearing.  
They walked in silence and Dipper had time to think. Already it seemed to him like a bad dream. When he tried to recall details the memories slipped from his mind and the further they walked the more difficult he found it to remember why he had been so scared in the first place.

As he saw the shack rise in front of them he felt like he had just woken from a really deep sleep and the familiar surroundings helped him forget the immense horror he had just experienced. When he stepped onto the porch he looked down onto his feet. They were covered in mud and needles and he brushed them off with his hands. Mabel would get suspicious if she saw their dirty footprints around the house the next morning. It was better she did not find out what they had been up to while she slept. He waited for Bill to do the same then gladly closed the door behind them. Everything was as peaceful and quiet as he had left it.

"We can talk tomorrow," Bill said as he saw Dipper yawn and headed for the living room.  
Dipper thought about holding him back but didn't know what to say so he just watched him disappear in the other room. He turned the other direction and climbed the stairs to the bedroom.

Once there he checked on Mabel who was still sleeping soundly and tossed his sweaty shirt in a corner. He made sure the journals were still there then climbed under the blanket and closed his eyes.

His last thought before falling asleep was of Bill and the warmth of his hand in his.


	16. XVI

Dipper drifted back into consciousness from a dreamless night. He wasn't sure if he had even slept at all because his head and limbs felt heavy and sore. He blinked at the sunlight streaming in through the small window and lifted his head a few inches. His shoulders cramped at the effort and he fell back onto the pillow with a groan.  
Last night's events started to come back to him but in the bright morning light it seemed like just another bad dream.  
When he looked at Mabel's empty bed a movement caught his eye. He turned his head too quickly and the pain in his back intensified. He stared at the figure looking at him from the foot off his bed and was instantly wide awake.

"Pleasant dreams?" Bill asked and a shit-eating grin was plastered across his face. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest still wearing the outfit Dipper had last seen him in, which meant just his boxers.

"Do you always watch people sleep?" Dipper grumbled.

Bill chuckled. "That's literally my job, kid."

Dipper scoffed and was about to kick back his blanket when he noticed the reason for the other's smug grin.  
He shot up despite his aching muscles and piled the blanket on his crotch. Embarrassment sank into him like molten iron.

“Why are you even here?” Dipper almost yelled while his face heated up rapidly. How long had he been standing there? He hated to feel so vulnerable. Especially in front of Bill.

“Well Shooting Star sent me to wake you. Breakfast is almost ready.” His voice was casual but the smirk never left his face. He was really enjoying his misery.

Dipper huffed. “Thanks, I’m up, you can leave now.”

Bill laughed. “I can see that, Pine Tree.”

Dipper felt his skin go cold then heat up again violently. He clenched his teeth and wanted to snap at him but no words came. Slowly he was getting angry at how much Bill was relishing his embarrassment and he felt the urge to punch him.

“She also said you would lend me some clothes.” he continued and grinned at his furious expression.

“You can get them later now could I maybe have some privacy, please?” Dipper growled and kept his eyes on the demon. If he averted them now he wouldn’t be able to look at him for the rest of the week.

“Relax,” Bill sighed theatrically. “It’s a natural occurrence during a typical sleep cycle. It’s a good thing. It means you’re healthy.”

Dipper just found out that it was possible to get even more flustered. He gave up the staring contest and buried his flushed face in his scrunched up blanket. On the upside he wouldn’t have to look at that smug face any longer. He wondered if this situation could get any more awkward.

Bill chuckled. “Lighten up, kid, we’re both guys here. Kind of,” he added grinning. “I’ve spent enough time in this body to know what I’m talking about.”

“Go away!” Dipper snarled his voice muffled by the blanket.

“Get up and give me something to wear first.”

He could hear the smirk in his voice and didn’t move.

“Unless you want me to run around like this all day,” he said teasingly. “I know Shooting Star wouldn’t mind.”

Dipper lifted his head and shot daggers at him. He had the feeling he wouldn’t get him to leave before he hadn’t poked fun at every single one of his weak spots. He hated how obvious they were to him.

“Hurry up a little, would you. I’m hungry.” Bill urged him and Dipper groaned in desperation. This was the worst way to wake up. From now on he would lock the bedroom.

“Just take a shirt from the dresser,” he told him exasperatedly.

“Which one?” Bill asked sweetly.

“Whichever! I don’t care!”

Bill raised his arms defensively but his eyes were mischievous. “Fine. Want me to wear pants too or should I just - ?”

“No!” Dipper interrupted before he realized what he was implying. He froze and Bill burst into laughter.

“I mean I don’t have any clean ones.” He tried to correct himself he knew it was too late. All he could do was sit there and endure the teasing of a lifetime. He felt like crying and screaming at the same time and the pressure in his groin wasn’t helping either. Yes, he hadn’t treated Bill very nicely over the last two days so that probably served him right. He would have to wait it out. At least Mabel didn’t have to see this.

“You’re hilarious, Pine Tree,” Bill said getting himself under control again and wiping tears from his eyes. “But stop being so shy. You have nothing I haven’t seen before.”

Dipper felt the heat of his cheeks reach his ears. “Back up a step,” he hissed while pulling at the corner of his blanket. Bill rolled his eyes dramatically as he watched him get off the bed with the blanket draped over his shoulders. He probably looked ridiculously bashful but at this point he didn’t even care anymore. He walked over to the dresser but instead of pulling out the drawer he veered off and dashed for the door.  
He was out in the hallway before Bill could interfere and slammed the bathroom door behind him.

“Dammit, Pine Tree!” he hear Bill laughing on the other side. “What about my shirt?”

Dipper leaned his head against the door and rubbed a hand over his hot face. “Get it yourself! Just pick one. You’ll ruin them anyway sooner or later.”

He listened for steps disappearing into the bedroom and sighed with relief. If Bill had decided to act like this from now on he would have to murder him. No matter the casualty. Why couldn’t Mabel wake him herself? He dropped the blanket and looked down at himself. On the other hand, he was glad she hadn’t.

He took off his boxers carefully and kicked them aside then stepped into the shower. The warm water felt heavenly on his face and he just stood there letting steam fog up the room. If he didn’t want to raise Bill’s suspicion, however, he would have to lower the temperature considerably. It probably didn’t matter either way, he thought, Bill would be teasing him regardless of how long he would take. He might as well enjoy his little break away from him.  
Also he shouldn’t be ashamed for something he had no control over, he decided. It was only natural after all. Bill had said so himself. The same could have happened to him, couldn’t it?

Dipper tried to push the thought away but it was very persistent. The demon probably had complete control over his human vessel and would never be caught dead with something as mundane as morning wood.  
Still, he had to at least struggle with these kind of things. If he was able to feel pain and hunger the way every person did who was to say he couldn’t experience pleasure in the same way.

He felt heat pool in his stomach and turned the faucet to cold frantically. He let the water soak his hair and followed it with his eyes at it travelled along his legs. It washed away the rest of the mud and dust from the forest and revealed scratches all over his ankles and shins. His memories of the nightmare were already fading but he remembered Bill having to hold him back from fleeing in panic and it brought on another wave of shame. The thought of Bill’s hands didn’t help with his problem either. He told himself to stop reminiscing and wash up. The cold water had already begun to hurt his skin and not really improve his situation either. He turned it warmer and shampooed his hair while trying to keep his mind blank.

It was a futile mission and his thoughts began to wander. He held his head under the warm stream and watched the suds flow over his stomach and over his heated skin.  
Before he knew it he found himself running a soapy thumb over the length of his shaft.  
Might as well finish what was already started, he thought to himself as he took his erection into a firmer grip. He adjusted his stance and sighed as the familiar tingle crept along his nerves. The pressure built as he moved his palm over the tip of his penis and pulled back the excess skin. He formed a fist and began to move his hand around the now exposed head rhythmically and his breathing quickly turned into panting.  
He leaned his forehead against the cold tiles and became more relaxed as the water loosened the painful tension in his shoulders. He allowed himself to give into the blissful sensation of friction as his hand moved steadily.

It took all of Dipper’s concentration to listen for sounds outside. It had been too quiet for some time now and he briefly wondered what Bill was up to and if he shouldn’t rather keep an eye on him than jerking off in the shower.  
The thought was almost instantly replaced by a mental picture of the demon leaning against the wall his arms crossed over a smooth chest, dark eyes framed by a mop of hair shimmering golden in the light.  
Dipper was used to his brain coming up with the weirdest things when he touched himself like this so he was not as appalled as he would have been under different circumstances. He hoped Bill had at least put on a shirt by now but as long as he hadn’t done the laundry he would have to watch him run around the house without pants and just his underwear.  
Dipper’s hips bucked involuntarily and he gasped.  
He was not ashamed of finding Bill attractive - he presumably made himself look like that on purpose and he was sure Mabel wouldn’t disagree - but the thought of him while he did what he was doing now worried him nonetheless. He had to focus his mind onto something else before it was too late and he could not be in the same room with him without being reminded of his current activity.

His breath caught as he felt a welling of pressure in his groin and thigh muscles. He braced himself against the wall with his left arm and pushed his right hand down to the base to give him a little more time. He tried to picture one of his ex-girlfriends or Wendy’s selfie he had saved on his phone for exactly this purpose. They were both pushed aside by the memory of last night’s walk through the woods. He was reminded of the dim light outlining Bill’s neck and shoulders and the way the muscles in his legs moved as he walked.

Dipper groaned at the fruitless effort to steer his mind in a different direction but he couldn’t keep his hand from moving upwards again. A low prickling sensation like electricity started in his feet and flowed up his legs and the small of his back. He barely suppressed a moan and prayed the gush of the shower would drown out the sound of his rapid breathing.  
When he glanced down and watched his hand stroke his hard cock he couldn’t help imagining someone else’s in its place bringing him closer to climax.  
The thought pushed him over the edge and his hips thrusted forward forcefully. All the muscles in his body tensed and he shut his eyes as uncontrollable pleasure ripped through him. His hand squeezed the tip roughly and bursts of hot liquid shot through his fingers.

He held onto his pulsing member until the pressure inside him had subsided and the now cool water had washed away all evidence. His lungs burned with the need to breathe and he realized only now that he had been holding his breath in fear of being overheard. He inhaled large gulps of moist air and turned off the water. His knees almost gave in as he stepped out of the shower wrapped a towel around himself. It had been quite some time since had experienced a release with this intensity.

He waited for his head to clear up while he dried himself off carefully. Before he went back to the bedroom he put on his discarded boxers again hissing as the cloth came in contact with his now overly sensitive skin.  
With the blanket tucked under his arm and the world around him gradually coming into focus again he thought about resting for a few more minutes before going downstairs.

He scrapped the idea when he opened the door and saw Bill sitting cross-legged on his bed.

“Feeling better?”

He was wearing one of Dipper’s navy blue shirts and a cheeky grin. Dipper ignored his teasing and picked out one of the remaining shirts for himself.  
“You didn’t have to wait for me, you know?” he said sarcastically and threw his blanket at Bill. The demon caught it mid-air and spread it out skillfully.

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied cheerfully. “But if you’d taken any longer I would I would’ve eaten all the pancakes myself. I’m starving.”

Dipper hadn’t eaten much the previous day and was feeling very hungry now that he was reminded of it. He was still a little drowsy as he went downstairs and into the kitchen with Bill following closely.

“Morning, bro-bro!” Mabel greeted him and pushed a plate into his hands, “Sorry to wake you but otherwise you would’ve slept all day again.”  
She balanced another pancake on the growing pile on the table and pulled out a chair for him. Bill had already started to put half of the freshly-made pancakes onto his own plate. Both his hands were still wrapped in bandages and his right one had even bled through around the fingertips. He must have strained it yesterday when he made the seal, Dipper thought, although it could be the one he had held a little too tightly.

“You ok?” Mabel asked an derailed his train of thoughts. “Are you tired? Didn’t get enough sleep last night?” Dipper looked at her for using a voice that was not very typical for her but she smiled at him as brightly as ever. “One time I looked over and you were gone. What were you doing?"

The hair on Dipper’s neck bristled. He looked over at Bill to see if he was going to say anything but he was too busy stuffing himself with breakfast.

“Nothing,” he said. Oh god, he was a bad liar. But it was better Mabel didn’t know about their little adventure. He didn’t feel very hungry anymore. He chewed but didn’t taste anything. Mabel looked disappointed and Dipper assumed she knew he was hiding something and it hurt him to see her like that.  
He would find a way to distract Bill and talk to her when they were alone. Then he would tell her everything. Regarding the nightmare that was.

He forced himself to eat a little more while Mabel cut one of her pancakes into tiny pieces. Only Bill seemed to be untouched by the grave tension between them. He took another pancake and wolfed it down. If he was going to puke again it would be his own fault.

“This is ridiculous,” Mabel sighed and Dipper looked at her bewildered. She put down her fork and altered their gaze between him and Bill.

“We won’t make any progress if we’re not honest with each other.” She looked first at him then at Bill who had stopped chewing and stared back apparently waiting for some kind of outburst.

Mabel exhaled sharply as neither of them spoke. “You told me to be careful and not to get manipulated by Bill,” she began and her eyes bore into Dipper’s. “And I hear you whispering to each other in the middle of the night. What am I supposed to make of this?”

Dipper swallowed. Should he tell her now what they had been doing? That he had run off not knowing how much he would risk? That he had not told her and so betrayed her trust? All he had wanted to do was to protect her.

She was right. Bill had used him. He still hadn’t fully grasped what had actually happened last night but he Bill had even said he had been using him to lure in the monster. He still owed him an explanation.

“I want us to be honest too,” he said and earned a tired smile.

“Right,” she said.”We can only work together if there are no more secrets, ok?”

“Sounds good,” Dipper said locking eyes with Bill. “There sure are some things I would like to know.”

The demon smirked. “Same here, Pine Tree. Tell me if you find anything!”

Dipper blinked in confusion. He did not like where this conversation was going. “Find where?”

Bill leaned closer and his voice was barely a whisper. “In the journals under your bed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Fanart by sweaty-and-awkward](http://sweaty-and-awkward.tumblr.com/post/123849012901/requested-by-orphancricket-for-the-newest-chapter)  
>  (NSFW!)


	17. XVII

Dipper kneeled down and pulled out the journals from underneath the bed. His fingers were numb and he felt neither anger nor fear. He had known he couldn’t keep the books a secret for very long. The moment he had felt superior had only lasted a few hours. He had known something was up when he had found Bill sitting on his bed. The demon wouldn’t have waited for him just to be nice.

The books were useless anyway, he told himself. There couldn’t be anything in it that Bill didn’t already know but from now on he really had to be more careful. He hoped to at least keep Ford’s room and the books in there safe for a little longer.

Bill was currently telling Mabel about the nightmare after Dipper had nonchalantly offered to show the journals to him curious as to how he would react upon seeing the condition they were in. A small fraction of doubt still remained nonetheless. Had he overlooked some vital information? Could the journals be used in a way he hadn’t thought about before? What could Bill possibly want with them?

He went down the stairs and put all three of them on the table in front of Bill as he was explaining the seal he had carved into the tree with the knife he had brought. He glanced at the books briefly as Mabel swallowed and stared at his bandaged fingers. She obviously felt the same way as Dipper when imagining him creating the other two.

Bill spread out the books and Dipper studied his face closely as he reached out and thumbed through the ripped and burned pages. His eyes showed no emotion but the corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly. If he was close to laughing or screaming Dipper couldn’t tell.  
He sat and waited for Bill to continue his story. There was still a lot he needed to know and had been too exhausted to ask last night.

“Do what exactly do these seals do?” Mabel asked trying to get his attention back on track. “Do they control the nightmare?”

Bill turned to her and pushed the books away. His expression had softened a little. “A nightmare cannot really be controlled,” he said. “It is not a physical being. It does not exist in the way things do in your dimension. Don’t think about that too much,” he added as he saw Dipper scrunching his nose trying to imagine that.  
“It’s how things are in the mindscape,” he continued. “I told you about that already. It’s filled with people’s emotions and a nightmare is the projection of a human’s fear. It is not malevolent as you might think. It can actually help them cope with or overcome their anxieties and phobias.”

“It seemed pretty malevolent to me,” Dipper snorted and Bill raised an eyebrow at him.

“Of course it scared you because you’re afraid of the dark, Pine Tree, but it didn’t hurt you, did it?”

Mabel turned to him and a sly smile was playing around her lips. “I had no idea, bro, why didn’t you tell me?”

Dipper felt very uncomfortable under both their stares. “I’m not afraid of the dark,” he spat. “I just have a very vivid imagination.”

That made Mabel laugh and he relaxed a little. “It’s ok, bro, everyone’s a little afraid of that sometimes.”  
Her face was serious again when she looked at Bill again. “So Dipper defeated it by facing his fear of darkness?” she asked and the demon paused for a minute his brows furrowed in concentration.

“It’s not really the fear of darkness Pine Tree encountered,” he said slowly. “It plays a big part but it goes a little deeper than that.”

Mabel edged closer on her chair hungry for every word.

“It’s more comparable with the fear of turning from a hunter to the hunted. I presume it’s some kind of remnant from your evolution or something you humans use as an excuse to freak out at the sight of harmless snakes or spiders. Someone who thinks to be always in control, like Pine Tree here, is of course afraid to have the roles reversed.”

Mabel had started to separate strands from her hair and watched as they glided through her fingers. “So Dipper had to stop running and show that he was not afraid, right?”

Dipper scoffed. “I wasn’t running.”

“And you made the seal to banish it while it was distracted,” she summarized ignoring her pouting brother.

Bill nodded. “The seals allow me to gain control over the gaps so I could close them as soon as the nightmare decided to retreat.” He shot a glance at Dipper. “But the nightmares are lured by emotions and since I don’t have a human mind I needed someone to do that for me.”

“That’s what you needed me for?” Dipper growled. “I thought you went after me to help.”

“Didn’t I?” Bill shrugged not looking particularly apologetic.

“You said you had control over it too!”

“I did. In the mindscape but not here.”

Dipper threw up his arms in defeat and ignored Bill’s grin.

“What do you mean ‘they look for emotions’?” Mabel asked and distracted them both. “Don’t you have those too … in some way?”

Bill inhaled deeply. “When a human enters the mindscape during a dream, a nightmare will seek out the minds most susceptible to its influence. Since I’m not a human - well my body is but my mind is still me - I’m not a target for them.”

“So you’re telling me you used Dipper to gain the nightmares attention and confront him with his biggest fear without having any control over it?” She talked slowly and clearly but her voice was on the verge of yelling.

Bill grinned gleefully. “Don’t be mad, Shooting Star. I told you he ran off by himself.”

Mabel directed an angry glare at her brother and Dipper winced. He was sure to get a serious talking to later.

“He did pretty well though,” Bill said earnestly and glanced at him.

For a short but awful moment Dipper thought he would now start mocking him for having to hold him back from fleeing in panic. He mentally prepared for another stream of insults and teasing but to his surprise Bill skipped that part entirely.

“Anyway I activated the seals, closed the gap and brought Pine Tree back in one piece. No harm done, right?”

Dipper was grateful to be spared but was still left wondering why Bill had passed on that perfect opportunity. Not that it was very important or anything, he reminded himself, but it was still interesting how differently he behaved when Mabel was around. He seemed a lot more open and - Dipper hated to admit it - human when they were alone. Maybe he could use that to his advantage.

“Tell me more about the seals,” Mabel insisted once more interrupting his thoughts.

“What exactly do you want to know? Your time is very limited,” Bill said and Mabel rolled her eyes.

“Well, you said you needed three of them, why’s that?”

“Because I like triangles,” he said immediately and smirked. “And because it’s the most efficient form to define an area in this dimension. The mindscape takes seventeen, don’t think about it.”

“And the nightmare or monster or whatever has to be inside that area to be affected by it, correct?”

Bill rested his chin on his hand. “Not necessarily. Only the things I want to control and I wasn’t controlling the nightmare - Pine Tree was - but the gap. I just wanted to bring them closer together first. Makes the whole opening and closing process a lot easier.”

“That’s my next question,” Mabel continued her dark eyes boring into his. Dipper wondered how long he would put up with the interrogation. Apparently he was a lot more patient with his sister than himself.  
“How do you do that without any powers? You told us you lost them when we banished you now you run around making seals and closing gaps? Tell the truth! I want to know what you’re capable of!”

Her breathing quickened but she held his stare. Dipper found the same expression on Bill’s face when he had asked that question. Would she get the same answer?  
Bill had started to look a little uncomfortable under their combined glares.

“Fine,” he said at last and pursed his lips. “I’ll tell you.”  
Dipper felt Mabel next to him tense.

“Those gaps that have begun to open are not only a way for nightmares to get through but also for all kinds of energy. Even nightmares themselves are essentially nothing more than large clusters of power. As is every life force in the entire universe.”

He exhaled slowly and waited for a question but the twins kept quiet.

“Remember when you entered the mindscape through your great uncle’s dream? You were not physically there but parts of you - your mind to be exact - were.  
That’s also how you experience dreams. You let some of your energy pass through the dimensional barrier and your brain later interprets it as something that really happened. Sorry I don’t know how to explain it simply.”  
He smiled at both their focused expressions.

“No, I get it,” Mabel said quickly. “Those gaps are a way to switch dimensions when we sleep and our dreams are the flow of energy between them.”

Bill looked at her appreciatively.

“What does that have to do with how powerful you are?” Dipper interrupted getting more and more impatient.

Bill dismissed the question keeping his eyes on Mabel. “I can extract some of that energy,” he said and Dipper’s fingers went cold. He had known there was something he hadn’t told him. Did he really expect him to show up as a vulnerable human demanding their help? What else was he keeping from them?

“Why don’t you use it to get back to the mindscape?” she asked and shot him a glance to keep him quiet then faced Bill again curiously awaiting his answer.  
Dipper didn’t expect her to get one but once again he was proven wrong.

Bill sighed and kept talking. “Unfortunately that would take a lot more energy than I can currently attain. I used the amount I gathered to first heal my body and the rest to fend of the nightmare. I would need a lot more time to collect enough to even open one on my own.”

“How long?” Mabel asked quietly.

“Well,” Bill said tracing the cover of the first journal with his fingers. “It took almost nine years until I had enough to take over a body. And this one didn’t even resist.”

Dipper scoffed. “Really? You spent all this time waiting for someone to come along to conveniently slip into a coma in front of you? That’s pretty hard to believe.”

Bill narrowed his eyes at him. “I didn’t cause the accident if that’s what you’re implying,” he said calmly. “But without me poor Nathaniel would be dead and not just unconscious. He can thank me later.”

“If he ever gets his body back that is,” Dipper growled but Bill merely smiled.

“It will be as good as new but for now I need it. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to interact with anything here.”

He flipped open the journals and started scanning the pages. The holes and scorch marks didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.

“What do you need our help for?” Mabel asked and it was impossible to overhear a trace of fear in her voice.

“You’re helping already,” Bill said and looked up from the book, a grin on his face. It didn’t look very friendly. If anything it made Dipper feel threatened. Even Mabel shifted in her chair uncomfortably.

“Do you think the journals are still useful?” she probed carefully and Bill sighed.

“We’ll see. They’re in pretty bad shape but most of the stuff in it is not relevant anymore either way.”

He paged through the first half and stopped when he reached the pattern in the center. A shudder ran down Dipper’s back and clawed with icy fingers at the back of his neck. Maybe giving him the books had been a bad idea after all. Bill turned the page and the moment passed.

A sudden hint of realization flashed across Mabel’s face and her eyes jumped from the journals to Dipper and came to rest on Bill.  
“If you can manipulate the gaps using the seals why can’t you just create one for yourself?”

Dipper held his breath. He had thought of the exact same thing the night before but Bill had somehow steered his thoughts into a different direction. He remembered that he had been told that gaps only worked in one direction but the fact that Bill had managed to find one that not only led back into the mindscape but was also big enough to let something as big and powerful as the nightmare pass through it so easily was enough reason to become suspicious of his intentions once again.

The demon folded his hands on top of the books and looked as Mabel as a teacher would look at a child who had just asked a very stupid question. It made Dipper angry. His sister was smart to ask the obvious question and did not deserve that condescending expression but it was probably an act to distract her too so Dipper only clenched his fists under the table and waited patiently for his explanation.

“You see,” the demon began leaning forward in his chair. ”It takes even more energy to open one up from scratch than to expand an already existing one.”  
He held up a hand before Dipper was able to interrupt.

“Yeah, sure I could just use any of the wider gaps, make a seal around it and slip back into the mindscape,” he said answering the question Dipper had not been allowed to ask.  
“But the thing is,” he continued. “The mindscape is much larger than this dimension and probably stretches farther than you can possibly imagine with your restricted minds. The gaps appear all over it and just entering one at random could leave me stranded somewhere in it with no means of getting back.”

Dipper sneered. “Aren’t you ruling over the mindscape or something like that. Can’t you just … go wherever you want to be?”

Bill exhaled and gave him one of his teacher-looks. “The mindscape is not a physical dimension like the one you’re used to. Everything you experience in it just seems that way because your simple brain cannot comprehend it any other way.”  
He ran a hand through his hair and shook the bangs out of his eyes.  
“What I’m saying is that without my full power I would just be as lost in it as a mere human.”

“So you want us to help you find more gaps?” Mabel asked and Dipper felt a weight drop in his guts. Getting Bill more power did not seem like one of their better ideas.

Bill leaned his head to the side. “I can sense the gaps just fine. There’s one right at the edge of the forest for example.”

Dipper concluded that he had to be talking about the spot by the meadow where he had found him the day before and naively assumed he was just enjoying the nice weather. Oh, how stupid he must have seemed to the demon.

Mabel looked startled. “Was this the one the nightmare came through? Was it so close?”

Bill shook his head. “No, it’s too small for that and it’s already started to close again. But here comes the interesting part and I think you can actually help me with that.”

Mabel’s eyes widened in anticipation but Dipper merely scowled.

“The energy between the dimensions is always moving but overall keeps up a constant state of equilibrium. Everytime I send something back - say a nightmare - energy flows back out to replace it. This is a lot more than I can get from a small gap and would allow me to leave you and your short existence even sooner.” He leaned back and waited for his words to sink in.

“Does that mean…,” Mabel started and Dipper noticed how pale her face was all of a sudden. “There are more things like that out there?”

Bill shrugged. “I guess. With the gaps opening all around us it’s possible. I would just need someone to draw them in.”

Dipper slammed a hand onto the table and Mabel jumped. Bill was unimpressed and only gave him a half-hearted smirk. “That’s actually what I wanted to propose yesterday, Pine Tree, remember?”

Something about a deal was ringing a faint bell in his head but the events that followed had pushed it to the very back of his mind. “You want us to lure in the monsters for you to gain more power?” he recapped. “Yeah, right. What’s in it for us?”

Bill’s eyes bore into his. Isn’t it obvious? they seemed to ask.  
“In return I’ll keep the nightmares off your back and banish them to where they belong.”

Dipper narrowed his eyes at him.. That seemed to simple. He didn’t like that.  
“What happens with them when you have enough energy to go back yourself?” he asked. He could imagine Bill running off and leaving them to fend for themselves.

“Don’t worry about that,” he said with a sincere smile. “As soon as I’m in the mindscape with my full power I can close new gaps more easily and the nightmare will stay there. It’s a win-win situation. Doesn’t really get any better than that.”  
He grinned and waited for them to say anything.

Dipper expected Mabel to ask more questions but she was just sitting quietly one hand twirling her hair absorbed in her own thoughts.

“When you have more power,” Dipper said as he could no longer stand the silence and Bill’s smug face. “Will you be able to make a genuine deal again? And I mean not a simple exchange of promises but a real demon-like contract?”

Bill’s grin disappeared. “If that’s what you want we can sure work on it. I just need a little time to recharge, alright?”

Dipper felt he had upset him somehow and the only explanation he could think of was that if Bill made a deal he was bound by it and that’s something he did not seem to want. Even after everything they had talked about he was still not completely honest with them. Now he had to find out what he was keeping from them.

Mabel still hadn’t talked but slowly got up and started to clear the table. She stacked the plates and put them next to the sink. “I’ll run the washing machine. Do you have anything else you want me to put in?” she asked and when Dipper turned around to answer no he received a hard stare.

“Yeah my bed sheets,” he said grateful for his quick mind. “Let me just get them.” He got up and followed his sister up the stairs, leaving Bill to look through the journals.  
He had a feeling she wanted to talk alone.


	18. XVIII

“Can you do me a favor?” Mabel asked as Dipper had just finished stripping his pillow.

It was initially meant as an excuse but his sheets really were dirty from the mud he dragged in with his feet. He had guessed from his sister’s expression that she wanted to talk to him in private but it was not after she was absolutely certain that Bill would stay put in the kitchen that she had dared to even look at him.  
Now she was standing by the bedroom door watching him with the same worry in her eyes she had displayed since their talk with the demon.

“Sure,” Dipper said immediately even though the sound of her voice made it sound like a really big favor. She also never asked like this. She just stated what she wanted and left it up to him to decide if he felt like doing something for her. He usually did. Now Dipper liked neither the sound nor the words she used.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked, took the sheets in his arms and carried them into the bathroom. Mabel followed him and while he put them into the washing machine to the rest of their laundry glanced nervously behind her. Her hand rested on the door handle and Dipper could see that she debated if she should close the door to not be overheard or leave it open and not raise any suspicion. She decided for the latter but kneeled beside him and spoke in a hushed tone.

“I need you to distract Bill for a while.”

“Why?” Dipper asked automatically and her eyes flashed warningly.

“I’ll tell you later,” she whispered before getting up and swiftly leaving the room.

Dipper was left on the tiled floor looking after her in confusion. That was some very unusual behavior, even for someone as impulsive and unpredictable as Mabel. He wondered why she hadn’t told him more. Either she was worried Bill could listen in on them and it was something he should not know or she feared the demon would get suspicious and make him talk and she was just taking precautions. Another possibility was - and that send a pang of guilt through him - that she as doing the same to him as he had done to her last night: Plotting something without telling him, making him worry about her. Apologizing had not been enough , she obviously wanted him to learn the hard way. He probably deserved that.

Dipper sighed and turned on the washing machine. He just hoped she would at least tell him later and not get into too much trouble. Maybe she just wanted to check out the books in Ford’s room, he thought and calmed down a little.  
Meanwhile he could use the time and question Bill on the journals. He was not as informative when he talked to him but if he was still in a good mood he could at least try to get some useful information .

Before he went down he changed his boxers - a brief flash of memory of his morning shower resurfaced but he locked it away again carefully - and even found an old pair of shorts at the back of one of the drawers. Even though they had the closed-sign up and hopefully no tourists would be showing up he still felt better when he had put them on.  
Bill would have to wait for his clothes to dry before he was able to wear pants again but, as Dipper could see as he entered the kitchen, he was also very comfortable without them.

He had his bare feet propped on the table and studied one of the journals lying on his lap. He was about to scold him but then thought better of it. If he was occupied by reading than Dipper didn’t have to work very hard to keep him entertained and unaware of Mabel’s whereabouts.  
Where was she anyway? DIpper had not seen or heard her upstairs and the living room was empty as well when he had checked.

He was about to ask Bill if he had found anything yet to justify him standing around so purposelessly but the demon was so emerged in an entry about zombie cows he probably wouldn’t even respond. So instead he walked over to the sink and started cleaning the dishes. It was his turn anyway since Mabel had done the cooking. Later he would try to convince Bill to take on some of the chores too since he practically lived with them now.  
Would he stay when the Stans came back? How would they explain this situation? They hadn’t heard from each other in two days now and were surely worried.

His phone was still lying on the counter and Dipper picked it up. The battery was drained to three percent but otherwise nothing had changed. No missed calls, no texts, no reception. Had the storm knocked over a cell tower? How long would it take to put it up again? He put it back and filled the sink with water.

Even though he had to clean dishes from breakfast and last day’s dinner it only took him roughly twenty minutes. He wondered how long Mabel had planned to stay away. Luckily Bill hadn’t moved much in the meantime but was close to finishing the second of the books. Dipper dried his hands on his shorts and stretched. His back felt a little better but he felt already tired again. Maybe it was just the sugar from the pancakes leaving his bloodstream.  
That could be easily replaced. He got a mug from the pantry and turned on the coffee machine. He did very much care for the taste but on more than one occasion the beverage had helped him keep awake to study for his exams. Just like Mabel he still drank it sporadically for a little boost in the morning and only if he added loads of sugar and cream. That was exactly what he needed right now.  
He noticed Bill look up from his page to assess the source of the noise then, apparently deciding it was another one of those weirds sounds he had to get used to, turned back. He was already halfway through the third journal.

“Want a cup?” Dipper asked momentarily forgetting that he had planned to keep quiet.

“No, thanks,” Bill said without looking up again.

For a second Dipper was taken aback. He knew it was just a phrase and the other presumably thought nothing of it but since he had shown up he had not expressed any sincere form of gratitude so hearing him say it so nonchalantly was something he would have to think about.

“I’m going cold turkey here,” he added and Dipper stared for a moment dumbfounded because he was still in deep thought and what he had just said somehow made no sense to him.

Bill suppressed a laugh, probably at his stupid expression. “Isn’t that what it’s called?” He pointed at his chest. “This body belonged to a caffeine addict and I’m having a hard time getting it off the stuff.”

“That would explain your mood swings and general grumpiness,” Dipper snorted and Bill’s expression hardened. Goose bumps traveled down his arms as the demon’s dark eyes bored into his.

“No, that’s just my personality.”

Dipper stared. Was that a joke? The corner of Bill’s mouth twitched upwards. If intentional or not Dipper couldn’t tell but it made him smile regardless. Bill grinned at him before the page in front of him took all his attention again.  
What did he see that made the book so interesting? Something that he himself had overlooked? Perhaps he should have read them one more time just to be sure. Maybe there really was a hidden message in there somewhere.

Dipper picked up his mug and added a generous amount of sugar and milk. He sipped it leaning against the counter watching Bill leaf through the last few pages. Mabel was still not back and he feared she had planned to stay away longer from the beginning. Soon he would need something else to keep Bill’s mind away from her. He felt the heat of the coffee in his stomach and the sugar flooding his system. It still took him quite some time and the beeping of the washing machine to come up with a plan. he put down his half-empty mug and went upstairs to get the laundry.  
When he returned Bill was already at the last page. He closed the book and looked quizzically at Dipper when a basket full of wet clothes dropped on the table in front of him.

“I get the feeling you want me to do something,” Bill said dryly and pushed the journals away from the puddle that had begun to form.

Dipper smirked. “I figured since you’ve been staying here for a while now and haven’t really done anything to qualify yourself as a decent roommate, you could put up the laundry outside.” He tossed him a clothesline and stepped back expectantly.  
For the first three seconds it seemed like he was getting ready to throw a tantrum but then he sighed, picked up the line and basket and headed for the backdoor.

“I want something in exchange, Pine Tree,” he said as he walked past him.

“How about free food and a place to sleep?” Dipper sneered and followed him onto the porch where he put his coffee mug next to the couch. Bill sneered and put down the basket in the grass. He began to unravel the line and glared up at him, squinting against the sun.

“I want to pick my own clothes.”

Dipper scrunched his nose. It seemed to be another of his weird deals again. He remembered the time Bill had asked him for his sweater and how persistent he had been. Then again, he was already wearing his shirt and underwear. What else could he want?

“We only packed for two people and a week, you know? There’s not really much to choose from.” He sat down on the couch and put his feet up and watched Bill tie one end of the line to a nearby tree.

“I want your shorts,” the demon said without turning around.  
Dipper remained silent waiting for him to keep talking but nothing else came. This was one awkward conversation.

“Your pants are too warm for this weather. I don’t get why you humans are so bad with dealing with hot weather.” He walked over to the next tree and tied the other end to a branch.

“Then why don’t you just stay like then?” Dipper asked instantly regretting it.

Bill raised an eyebrow and walked over to him, his face void of any expression. The sun had really heated up the ground since morning and promised a stifling summer day. There were no tourists coming in and after last night they wouldn’t have to worry about the townspeople showing up either. They had no reason to dress properly and - he was not gonna lie - he liked seeing Bill like this. That didn’t mean that he had to know that though!

Dipper swallowed hard. Bill stopped to pick up the basket from the ground and a faint smile played around his lips.

“I take that as a compliment,” he said and the smile split into a grin. He turned and walked over to the line before he could see Dipper’s face turning crimson.

They didn’t have to be in the mindscape for him to read his mind, Dipper thought and hid his face behind his knees. He wished Mabel was back. Then she could watch over Bill and he wouldn’t have to deal with all this now.He hadn’t seen her leave but it was likely that she had left the shack altogether. The house felt unusually quiet.

Dipper breathed deeply to straighten out his thoughts a little. She must have had her reasons, he told himself, and he would trust her.On the other hand he had done some really dangerous things without her as well. If this really way her idea of revenge on him she was not letting him off easy.

Bill had started hanging up the sheets and Dipper wondered if he had ever done this before.Not because he was so bad at it but because how absurd it all seemed. He had been their enemy years ago and now he was helping with the household. It gave Dipper a feeling he could not quite place. Like something was not right. It felt a bit like the nightmare yesterday, he realized. The feeling of dread or impending doom. It had a lot to do with the way Bill had looked at the journals. Could he use them in some way? And even more important, would he tell them how?.

Dipper cast the thought aside. At least for now. He watched Bill struggle with a T-shirt that wouldn’t stay on the line and chuckled. He may be all-knowing, he thought to himself, but he sure was lacking practice.

“Use the pegs!” he exclaimed and pointed to the basket.

Bill dug them out from underneath the clothes but not before shooting him a glare. He clearly did not like being ordered around or have his flaws pointed out. Dipper rolled his eyes at the thought but made a mental note not to hurt his pride more than necessary.

On his first try they slipped from his hand but he got the hang of it fairly quickly and he would soon be finished with the rest. Dipper decided this was something he could do every time from now on. He reached for his mug and leaned back. The coffee was cold already. For coffee standards that was but it made it easier to drink in the heat. On the upside their clothes would dry faster and he could replace his shorts with pants if Bill had been serious about that. He briefly wondered if embarrassing him was something he did out of revenge or simple joy. Both were equally terrible.

He looked over and saw that he was already putting up the last of Mabel’s tops and skirts. It hadn’t even taken him half the time he had expected. The sheets were neatly spread out and even the socks hung in pairs. If Bill made a deal - demon or not - he sure did not do it half-heartedly, Dipper had to give him that. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and picked up the basket.

“What piece of clothing do you want in exchange for cleaning the kitchen?” Dipper asked jokingly as he made his way towards the porch. “I give you a sock for doing the dishes next time.

Bill climbed the steps and stopped next to the couch. His eyes flashed angrily. “Be careful, Pine Tree,” he hissed and dropped the basket at his feet. It landed with a dull thud. “I might take you up on that.”  
He took a step closer and glowered down at him. Tiny beads of sweat had collected on his brow and the crook of his neck. When he reached out a hand Dipper flinched. He felt his fingers slip from his mug and instinctively grabbed for it but Bill was faster. He lifted it to his lips and drained what was left in a single gulp. He handed it back to Dipper who had expected a punch for his cockiness and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I really needed this,” he sighed and sat down next to him.

Dipper slowly relaxed again. “Couldn’t handle the withdrawal?”

Bill shook his head solemnly. “You humans and your addictions. The headache the worst.” He wiped his forehead in his sleeve and breathed deeply.

Dipper gave him a long look then got up wordlessly and went into the kitchen. He put the empty mug into the sink and got a soda from the fridge. He went back outside and held it out to Bill. Droplets of condensed water fell onto his arm and he looked up at the can.

“You’re not drinking enough that’s why you have a headache,” Dipper said and waited for him to take it.  
Bill’s eyes went from his face to the can and back again before he finally accepted it. Dipper watched him open it and take a small sip followed by two big gulps.

“Don’t drink too fast, it’s cold.”

Bill rolled his eyes at him and Dipper sneered back. He put the basket inside and left it by the staircase to remember to bring it upstairs again. When he stepped on the porch again Bill had emptied the can. He could get one on his own if he wanted another, Dipper decided and sat back down. He looked over at the laundry moving in a soft breeze. Now would be a good opportunity to ask Bill about the journals but he was scared that bringing them up would get them into an argument or the other would not talk at all anymore and he didn’t want to destroy this one peaceful moment.

Or that’s what it was anyway. They never lasted.

“Where’s Shooting Star?” Bill asked and the words trickled like ice water down Dipper’s back.

“Huh? Mabel? I don’t know,” he said truthfully and held Bill’s gaze.

“Pine Tree,” he growled warningly and leaned closer. “Where’s your sister?”

Dipper shrugged and saw Bill’s eyes searching his face for a clue. Now Dipper was glad Mabel hadn’t told him any details. The demon shot up from the couch and looked around. There was the sound of cicadas in the forest and the occasional chirp from a bird but otherwise it was quiet. Dipper’s breathing quickened at the sudden tension.

“Did she leave?” Bill asked quietly and Dipper shuddered at the sound of his voice. “Did she leave the shack?” he asked louder this time and Dipper felt his stomach twist.

“I don’t know,” he said again.

The next moment Bill was through the door and out of sight. Dipper pushed himself off the couch and bolted after him. He saw him cross the living room and followed him into the gift shop. He tried to think of a way to distract him, to calm him down. Why was he so furious anyway?

“What does it matter where she is?” Dipper asked trying to sound calm and collected despite his racing heart.

Bill whipped his head around and pierced him with his eyes. His words were quiet but felt like a blow to Dipper’s guts.

“There’s a nightmare out there.”


	19. XIX

Dipper froze.

“What?” His head felt heavy and slow. “But I thought you sent it back?” His voice was quiet to keep it from shaking.

Bill's face was void of any emotion. Dipper grabbed his shoulder and shook it.

“Didn’t you send it back?!” Now he was yelling and it made his throat hurt.

His movements felt sluggish and his limbs were filled with led. Bill pushed his hand away and he didn’t resist.

“I did,” he said through clenched jaws. “But Shooting Star was right...There’s more than one.”

Dipper forgot to breathe. Time slowed down and when Bill opened the door and stepped outside it happened in slow-motion before Dipper’s eyes. He couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. Did Mabel really leave the shack? Where would she even go? How much time had passed? Could the nightmare hurt her? Was Bill going to help her?

He felt like he had been standing around stupidly for minutes when merely seconds had passed. He got his legs to move and and ran after Bill who had already crossed the parking lot and headed for the road. How did he even know where to look for her, Dipper thought briefly then decided to focus his energy on keeping up with Bill. The other still displayed a slight limp from his mostly healed leg but despite this he was quite a fast runner.

Dipper caught up with him at the intersection to the main road. The angry cat Mabel had drawn on the sheet of paper caught his attention and made his stomach lurch. He forced his thoughts away from the worst-case-scenarios his brain was coming up with much too quickly.

He stepped out of the shade of the trees and onto the main road. The sky was a clear blue without the faintest hint of a cloud and it would have been a perfect summer day if the heat of the asphalt wasn’t burning the skin off his feet.  
He kept to the side of the road where he could walk on cooler ground and Bill followed his example. He felt pine needles dig into his soles but he almost didn’t notice them. The only thing he could think about was Mabel.

They were about halfway to the town when Dipper was no longer able to keep up his speed. He slowed to a walk and pumped air into his sore lungs, sweat running down his face. Bill caught up with him and he was about to ask if he even knew were the were going when he noticed something on the road in front of them.

At first he thought it was a piece of wood or rock but the closer they got the more it seemed like an animal or person.

“Mabel!” he yelled and broke into a run again, ignoring the pain in his ankles and feet.

She was crouched in the middle of the road lifting her head at the sound of his voice. Her hair hid half of her face and her eyes didn't seem to recognize him. Dipper’s heart sank at the sight and he wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold her. What had happened to her out here? Where was the nightmare that Bill had warned him about? It was bright daylight and the trees and road looked as normal as ever. It felt nothing like last night but Dipper feared that could change at any minute.

Only a few steps separated them from each other and Dipper already felt her hand in his when her eyes suddenly went with recognition. It was instantly replaced with terror.

“Dipper!” She shouted but her voice was drowned by a deafening roar.

It was the sound of a detonation and he felt the ground shake. Time seemed to freeze and he looked into Mabel’s frightened face before his right foot broke away from him. He took a seemingly endless time before he fully comprehended what happened.

Where just a second ago he had placed his foot, a giant hole had opened up.  
It had appeared instantaneously in the middle of the road stretching to either side of him and separating him from his sister only a few feet away. It was still growing and while it did made that terribly loud noise as it tore the ground apart.

Dipper right leg was suddenly without hold and he threw himself backwards instinctively. He reached behind him to catch his fall when he felt the earth shift dangerously around his hands and heels. He crawled backwards from the crumbling edge and pulled his legs away. Large chunks of rock and clouds of dust vanished in the darkness beyond pulling pieces of concrete with them.

As soon as his arms found solid ground again Dipper looked over at Mabel now at the other side of the chasm with both hands pressed over her ears, her face distorted with a silent scream. He tries to shout to her but the noise was unbearable. He turned around and peered down but could not see an end to the gaping hole. He weighed his chances of reaching her if he jumped but one wrong step would send him falling. The thought made his stomach lurch and he tore his eyes away. 

He feared the disintegrating sides would reach Mabel too and he opened his mouth to shout to her to move away when suddenly the ground stopped shaking and it became quiet again. Mabel had not moved from her spot but the edge hadn’t reached her yet Dipper breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don't move!”

The voice was coming from a few feet behind him but he didn't dare turning his head.

“What's happening?” he whispered and wasn't even sure if Bill had heard him.

The hot road burned on his skin and large bruises had formed on his wrists but he perceived neither. All he could focus on was Mabel looking helplessly at him from across the rift. It was now about twelve feet wide and stretched into the woods on both sides. Dipper saw trees leaning dangerously close to the abyss as the earth around their roots broke away.

His first thought was of a gas leak but they were too far away from the town for any underground pipes. Also an earthquake seemed pretty far-fetched.  
He had actually expected another black smoke monster when Bill had mentioned a nightmare not something like this. It was the middle of the day and a despite the sunlight the feeling of reality slipping away was the same as in the forest in the middle of the night.

He looked at Bill for help but must have moved too quickly because the ground gave a shake and more clusters of dirt and debris crumbled off the edge. Small cracks were already spreading out from it reaching for him like fingers.

Bill had stopped running before Dipper had and had the advantage of being at a safe distance from the abyss. His eyes searched their surroundings and his face was full of concentration. He turned back to Mabel who was now hugging her knees to her chest and glanced at him through the curtain of her hair. Her face was flushed from the heat and Dipper was suddenly aware of the full force of the sun around them. How long has Mabel been sitting there? If she had left shortly after she requested to keep an eye on Bill it must be almost an hour by now.

He wanted to get up to get a closer look at the hole and maybe at the nightmare which had created it but every move of his muscles was greeted with a low rumble and the ground trembling warningly. Even the cracks coming at his feet seem to move closer with every shaky breath he took.

“I said don't move!” Built hissed at him and he obeyed

If there was any way out of this it would only be with the demons help. Dipper gritted his teeth at the thought. Had he used them again? Could he have known Mabel was leaving the shack and was unintentionally luring in another nightmare? Why wasn't he doing anything?  
He was about to yell at him when he raised his voice.

“Shooting Star, do you hear me?” he shouted over to Mabel and Dipper held his breath. The earth remained still. It solely reacted to movement, Dipper reasoned and tried to calm his shaking hands. He could see Mabel raise her head slightly at the sound of Bill’s voice. Her eyes were directed at him but didn't seem to focus properly. Dipper feared it was more either effect of the heat or the nightmare. He wondered if he had looked the same to Bill the previous night.

“Shooting Star, listen to me!” he exclaimed again and this time Mabel seemed more alert.  
She glanced fearfully at the edge of the hole only a few inches in front of her feet then back at Bill with pleading in her eyes. Bill’s voice was determined and soft as he spoke.

“It’s not real it's just an illusion.”

Dipper’s eyes searched the rift but there was no sign of any nightmare. At least he couldn't see it. Maybe Mabel and Bill did.

“You have to face it to get out of there,” he added and Dipper felt an invisible hand grip his throat.  
He didn't want his sister to go through the same terrible experience he had.

“Let me do it!” he snapped but Bill ignored him. “Please! I did it once already. I know what to do!”

He hated to beg especially to Bill but he had to save Mabel no matter what.

“Where is it?” he asked and finally Bill acknowledged his existence by giving him a short glance.

“Where’s the nightmare?” he asked, almost yelled, his voice cracking with anger at his uselessness and fear for his sister. Bill’s eyebrow went up into his hair.

“That is it, Pinetree,” he said coolly. “Can't you tell?”  
He shifted his focus back to Mabel and left Dipper to his thoughts.

“It’s what?” It took Dipper a painfully long second to grasp it.  
He had seen no black smoke or liquid shadow because this was not the same kind of nightmare. It was the hole itself. Could it be defeated in the same way? He had the feeling just standing one’s ground and enduring it wouldn't be enough this time.

“Shooting Star!” Bill shouted again and his voice seemed more urgent now. Not afraid but very close. “It doesn't exist, do you understand?”

Mabel stared at him with distant eyes her expression shifting between fear and hopeful determination.

“Don't let it get to you, it's not there!”

Mabel let go of her knees and slowly kneeled, looking over the edge and Dipper saw her take a deep breath. Her face was flushed with the heat but looked more focused now. The ground gave a violent shake as she got to her feet, struggling to keep her balance.  
She took one last look into the hole in front of her then her eyes found Dipper’s and she stepped forward.

Dipper’s heart jumped. He watched in horror as her foot hovered over the edge then slowly lowered it. He wanted to scream for her to stop but his voice failed him. She would fall and there was nothing he could do.

He lunged forward towards her despite the distance between them, reaching for her. Her eyes locked with his and he feared that this was the last time he would ever see her. He forced his legs to stand but he was too slow. Why was his body so slow? He was so fixated on his sister that he didn't notice the cracks building around his knees and Bill shouting at him to stop moving.

Then many things happened at the same time.

For the blink of an eye it seemed that Mabel had walked willingly into her demise and Dipper’s imagination already showed him pictures of her vanishing from his sight and into the bottomless depth before her. But then her foot stopped in mid air and Dipper finally understood.  
As Bill had said it was only an illusion.

He almost laughed out loud at how scared he had been but the sound was choked before it even reached his front. He came to a sudden stop and felt his palms hit the ground as he skidded on the gravel. Instead of the pain he had expected from the impact the earth gave way and his hands were grasping into empty space. Pieces of earth and asphalt broke free and crumbled as the rest of his body weighed down on him. The hole opened up before his eyes and threatened to swallow him like a giant mouth.  
It wasn't an illusion after all! Bill had lied to them!

The roar of the moving ground reached his ears and panic begin to cloud his senses. He stemmed his knees into the ground and tried to pull himself back but they found no hold and the cracks where now all around him. He felt himself slipping and the edge around him and disappeared. Suddenly he felt something tug at his shirt and then his left arm was pulled backwards forcefully. Pain raced up his spine as his back hit the ground but the sensation of falling was gone.

He sucked in a shaky breath. He so Mabel run towards him and extended his hands. How was she running if there was no road? He tried to sit up but the weight on his shoulder was still there holding him back.

“I said don't move!” Bill snarled and pushed him down again. Dipper groaned with pain and anger but he couldn't do anything else. Everything was happening too fast. He thought he heard Mabel call his name and when he turned saw her only a few feet away putting her feet where no ground was visible.  
Only an illusion, he reminded himself and with great effort he pushed Bill away and scrambled into a kneeling position.

Mabel’s fearful eyes met his and she leapt, arms reaching for him. Her foot touched the edge and it looked like she could actually make it. Their fingers were only inches apart but then the ground broke away under her weight and Mabel stepped into nothingness.

Dipper threw himself forward desperately grabbing for her, his knees scraping on the concrete tearing blood. Searing pain shot through his body as his elbows followed and he felt the faint touch of Mabel’s hand before she slipped from his grasp.

His brain refused to believe what was happening. He could no longer feel any physical pain or the heat beating down on him. His senses were overtaken by a mixture of pure agony and numbing despair.  
Just a little farther, a little faster and he could have caught her. But he hadn't.

All of a sudden something was thrown against him and tore him from his thoughts that had formed only during a fracture of a second. The wind was knocked out of him and his jaw collided with the hot ground, crushing his teeth together. For a moment he saw stars but when his eyes focused again Mabel was still there.

Bill had caught the hand he himself had missed and pulled her up from the gaping hole. One of her feet kicked at a loose rock and sent it falling. The other found hold and she pushed herself up, both hands clinging onto Bill’s wrist. With their combined strength he hoisted her up then reeled backwards and crashed down, Mabel on top of him. Dipper could only stare in disbelief.

He pushed himself up on his knees again and reached out for her. He needed to touch her, to know she was safe despite him failing to save her himself. She looked up and her eyes were clearer. The next second she was in his arms and held him in a bone-crushing hug. He hugged her back just as hard and put a soothing arm across her trembling shoulders. She felt so incredibly small and her skin was unnaturally hot to the touch. Dipper expected it to be moist with sweats but it was completely dry. He knew that was not a good sign but he was so incredibly relieved to have her back that nothing else seem to matter right that moment. He wanted to ask her how she was feeling, what had happened, wanted to scold her for running off on her own, for not telling him where she was going and apologize for everything at the same time.

However, before any sound left his throat Bill caught his eye and now he was entirely lost for words. He had saved her. He had saved his sister when he wasn’t able to. He felt thanking him was the right thing to do but then his pride kicked in and he kept quiet. Bill gave him a hard look and he turned his head back to Mabel.  
She had stopped shaking but the fingers still clasped the back of his shirt tightly. Her breathing was rapid on his neck and when Dipper gently held her by the shoulders he saw her eyes were shut.

“Mabel?”

His voice cracked and did not sound like his own. She whimpered as she squinted her eyes against the sun.

“My head hurts,” she said quietly and buried her face in his chest.

Dipper shot a panicked glance at Bill.

“We should get her inside,” he suggested and reached out a hand as if to help her up but Dipper pulled her closer protectively and glared at the demon. He knew he was acting stupid and Bill would not have helped if you he was going to harm her now but he almost lost his twin so being a tiny bit too careful, maybe even irrational, was for the moment acceptable.

Bill’s face remained blank but he got to his feet wordlessly and stared down at them. Dipper helped Mabel stand and even though she had calmed down considerably still refused to open her eyes.

“Come on,” he said and turned his back to her. “I’ll carry you.”

He crouched and felt her arms reach around his shoulders. He hoisted her up, careful not to lose his balance and hooked both arms under her knees. When was the last time he had piggybacked he, he wondered.  
She was lighter than he had expected but the heat beneath his bare feet and his sore joints threatened to drain his strength very quickly. He had to get her to the shack as soon as possible before he ran the risk of owning Bill more than he already did. Oh, how he hated that feeling. He pushed it away. It was something he would think about when they were safe back home.

Before he started to walk he took one last look back at the hole and discovered that it was gone. The road and the trees beside it looked as undisturbed and peaceful as ever. He turned away with a lump in his throat and began the long way back.


	20. XX

When Dipper finally stepped into the cool shade of the Mystery Shack, sweat was dripping from his forehead and the soles of his feet were covered in blisters.  
The way back had seemed much, much longer and the heat and weight on his back had slowed him considerably. He hadn’t liked how Mabel had at times almost lost her hold on him so he had done his best to keep her awake and talking but very soon even that had become exhausting for her. Her words had started to slur and more than once she had run the risk of slipping off.  
As the shack finally came into view had Dipper had nearly been running, Bill always a few steps ahead of him, unbothered by searing heat. He had not offered to help carry her but that was mainly because he knew that Dipper would never have agreed to that.

At least he held the door open for him and Dipper shot him a thankful glance. That was the best he could do as he was too occupied forcing air into his aching lungs. With his last strength he crossed the gift shop, kicked the door to the living room open and carefully let Mabel slip from his back onto the sofa. She winced at the sudden change in position and tugged at his shirt with weak fingers.

“It’s ok,” Dipper soothed her. “We’re home.”

He couldn’t see her face but felt her relax a little and let go of him. He turned around and looked at her, searching for any injuries. The bright sun had blinded him and his eyes had not yet adjusted but he could not see any blood or serious bruises and he sighed in relief. He reached out a hand to her throat and felt her pulse. There was no need to count to know it was racing and her skin felt too hot and like paper. In this heat she had to be soaked in sweat, Dipper thought and ran a hand over his temple and forehead. A sinking feeling spread in his gut. Hadn’t she complained of a headache earlier?

“Mabel?” he asked with a tremble in his voice.

Please, dont be unconscious, he pleaded as she did not react and he cupped her flushed cheeks in his hands. Her head moved slightly at the touch and her eyelids fluttered open for a moment. Dipper wasn’t able to tell if her eyes focused on anything before they fell shut again. His arms erupted in goosebumps despite how hot he was.  
He saw her lips move but no words came out.

“Mabel?” he tried again more urgently, stroking strands of her out of her face and placing a hand above her eyebrows. Her skin was burning.

“Heat stroke.”

Dipper jumped and whipped his head around. Bill had followed him unnoticed and was standing a couple feet behind him, his face as always unreadable.

“What?” Dipper asked but he had heard perfectly well. the word ‘stroke’ repeating itself over and over in his head.

“She must have been trapped by the nightmare for quite some time,” he contemplated looking past him at Mabel’s face. “We have to cool her down.”

Dipper felt anger rise in his chest at the calmness the demon displayed but when he looked at him he saw worry in his eyes and he deflated. He headed to the kitchen before he even realized what he was doing. His brain seemed to work on its own while his mind was still in shock over his sister’s motionless body.

Cool her down, cool her down, cool her down. His eyes searched the room frantically, coming to rest on the fridge. Were there ice cubes in there? He flung open the door and groaned as he saw the empty tray in the freezer. Cursing under his breath he slammed it shut again. What would he do with ice cubes anyway? Make her a drink? He scoffed at his own thoughts, hating how useless he felt. Then he looked over at the sink and moved towards it. Maybe water wasn’t such a bad idea. He grabbed two dishrags from the cupboard and soaked them in cold water. He didn’t bother wringing them out before he bolted back into the living room, leaving a trail of puddles behind him.

Bill had not moved. He stood where he had left him but his face had become more sincere, his lips moved slightly as he chewed on them. Dipper had no time to reminisce what might be going on in the other’s head. He kneeled down in front of the sofa and spread one of the rags across Mabel’s chest and shoulders. She winced at the sensation but her eyes remained closed.  
Dipper took the other one from his drenched lap and used it to lightly dab at her burning cheeks and cracked lips. He didn’t dare to address her again fearing she would not react at all. With shaking hands he rolled up the towel and gently placed it onto her forehead, watching drops of water slide down her neck and vanish in her hair.

He had to make her drink something soon too to counteract the dehydration but if he forced her now she would just choke on it. He exhaled loudly and got to his feet. He knew Bill would not like the idea but she needed a hospital and he was going to call an ambulance.  
He berated himself for not taking his phone with him when he was in the kitchen. It was probably out of battery by now anyway, he told himself and either way he had had no reception in the first place.

He remembered the landline in the gift shop and headed for the door. Maybe it was working again. Afterll, they hadn’t checked on it after the power had come back on. He crossed to the counter and grabbed the receiver, almost yanking the cable from its socket. The silence on the other end was deafening.  
He counted seconds to make sure he was not being too impatient but after fifteen he could no longer stand it. He slammed it down in frustration and looked towards the door, ready for Bill coming after him.  
He secretly hoped for it He felt like punching someone, or crying, maybe both.

Even if the phone was working what good would it do? With the nightmare outside they wouldn’t even get close to the shack. He could not take Mabel outside again either. How could he even get into town?

Last night the nightmare had been chasing after them. Hadn’t Bill told them they sought out receptive minds. Did that mean that this nightmare would come after them too? Was there a hole forming under the shack this very moment?

Dipper pressed his palms into his eyes to banish his racing thoughts. He breathed deeply then lowered his hands, surprised as they came back wet.  
Angry at himself and this hopeless situation he wiped his sleeve across his face and reentered the living room. he didn’t want to leave Mabel alone for too long, especially not with Bill.

As he held open the door his first thought was that the demon must have left because he was not in his spot where Dipper had expected him to be. His second thought was ‘what is he doing?’ as he spotted him half a second later by the sofa hunched over Mabel and a bolt of rage shot through his chest. What had he been thinking? Bill could not be trusted and he had left her with him, defenseless, sick and vulnerable. He was about to leap at him, tear him away, maybe get a fist or knee in his face in the process, anything to separate him from his sister.

His third thought however, was the one that made him stop where he was, eyes wide and feeling like he was standing beside himself, watching the scene in front of him from a distance like a movie. Bill’s head was leaning over Mabel’s, one of his hands in her hair, the other on her shoulder. Why was he kissing her?

All of Dipper’s bubbling emotions evaporated at the sight. He couldn’t even remember why he had come here in the first place. For a second he wanted to turn around and leave, feeling embarrassed and guilty at interrupting them but then the rational part of his mind caught up with him and he sprinted at Bill.

The other barely glanced up before his shoulder slammed into him, practically tackling him to the floor. He tried to brace the fall with his arms but then Dipper’s weight crashed onto his chest, knocking him onto his back, leaving him gasping for air.

“What the fuck?!” Dipper spat, shoving him as hard as he got up and glared at him. His shoulder ached from the impact but he wished he had hit him even harder. He waited for Bill to attack him in return but he just looked up at him, panting and and careful not to make any sudden movements. He avoided Dipper’s eyes but his face showed no sign of anger.

Dipper felt like kicking him some more for taking advantage of his sister but when he turned to Mabel his boiling rage ebbed away instantly. She was looking directly at him, her eyes clear and focused and full of confusion. The towel on her head fell into her lap as she sat up.

“Careful,” Dipper said quietly, holding onto her arm.

Her skin felt cool and he marveled at how well the towels had worked. He took both off her when he had made sure she wasn’t going to collapse.

“How are you?” he asked, cringing at the stupid question.

Her eyes found Bill, still on the floor who had sat up quietly and the look she gave him was very odd. Or at least Dipper didn’t understand its meaning. It was a mix of concern, curiosity and interest. Like she was seeing him for the first time. Dipper didn’t like it at all but before he could comment on it, it had vanished from her face and she was facing him. Her flushed cheeks had faded to a healthy rosy color and she licked her dry lips. She opened her mouth to speak but was immediately rattled by a violent coughing fit. Dipper reached out a hands to pat her back but she lifted a hand to stop him, gaining some control over herself. There were tears in the corner of her eyes but she breathed easier already.

“I’m ok,” she said between more coughs and even managed a faint smile. “Just a headache,” she added bringing a hand to her forehead.

“My god, Mabel,” Dipper sighed and slumped down onto the floor beside her. “You really scared me.”  
He clenched his shaking hands, his heart still beating uncontrollably fast.

“What happened?” he asked, carefully studying her face as a shadow crossed over it.  
She looked like she wasn’t sure if he meant the nightmare or the incident he had just witnessed. He didn’t even want to think about the latter but a ball of ice formed in his stomach nonetheless. She shifted uncomfortably then her eyes focused on something behind his back and he turned his head, looking up at Bill. He ignored Dipper and held out a cup of water for Mabel. Dipper hadnÄt even noticed he had left.  
She eyed it sceptically but then flashed him a shy smile and took it. She coughed again after the first sip but managed to down the rest in one go.

“Thanks,” she said and gave Bill a long look that Dipper, to his growing frustration, wasn’t able to read either. She handed him the empty cup and the demon went back into the kitchen to refill it.

“So?” Dipper prodded, eyebrows raised as soon as Bill had disappeared through the door.  
She looked down at her hands then up at him.

“I wanted to get help,” she whispered her gaze darting towards the door, afraid Bill would hear. “Our phones are not working so I wanted to go into town and call Stand and Ford.”  
She licked her lips nervously. “Then there was… I don’t know… some kind of earthquake and the road just ...split. It was so weird.”  
She swallowed and Dipper waited patiently for her to continue.

“I ran away but it … blocked my way … and suddenly I was trapped in the middle of the road… and you didn’t even know where I was and I thought I would-... “  
She broke of and Dipper saw a flicker of doubt flash across her face. “Maybe I was hallucinating. It was so hot.”

She shook her head slightly as if to clear it of a thought. Dipper knew exactly how she felt. Her memory of the nightmare had already begun to fade and it was difficult to recollect what had actually happened. Even he himself wasn’t so sure anymore. Suddenly he found Mabel staring at him.

“You tried to catch me,” she said and Dipper’s stomach lurched. This part he remembered far too clearly and he swallowed hard. Her eyebrow furrowed in concentration.  
“And then you carried me home,” she added and the memory of her fingers slipping through his hands, fearing her anxious face to be the last he ever saw of her clouded his vision. But what about Bill saving her?

“Is that all you remember?” he asked averting his eyes and seeing Bill enter the room, cup in hand. Could she really not remember or was she just trying to spare him the pain and humiliation? He couldn’t decide what felt worse.  
Bill handed her the water but she didn’t drink it right away despite her thirst. She had started to bite her lip and the look she gave Dipper tore at his heart.

“Only falling,” she said answering his question and her face became solemn. “Falling… over and over again.”

She brought the cup to her lips and nipped before setting it on the floor and lying on her back again then put her arm over her eyes with a groan.

“You ok?” Dipper asked when he had found his voice again.

“It’s nothing,” she sighed. “Just the headache.”

He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll let you rest. Tell me if you need anything, ok?” he said getting up.  
She gave a small nod and turned on her side with her back to him. Dipper sighed then walked into the kitchen after shooting Bill a glance to follow him. He would not let them be alone together again. He made sure to leave the door open and tossed the rags into the sink as he walked by.

Bill had been unusually quiet but he was positive that would change in the next few minutes. They walked out into the hallway and Dipper pointed at the laundry basket he had left there.

“Come on,” he said mockingly cheerful. “It should be dry by now.”

Bill narrowed his eyes at him as he realized what he expected of him. Dipper took a deep breath and held it, bracing for insults, hoping for punches. He really wanted another excuse to place his knuckles into the other’s face. To his amazement - and slight disappointment - Bill held his gaze only a few more seconds then picked up the basket and went outside. Dipper heard his footfalls on the porch then on the grass. He took one last look at Mabel, her chest rising and falling evenly now, and went after him.

The sun was no longer in zenith but the air was stifling nonetheless. He sat down on the steps and watched Bill take down their clothes. Maybe ‘tear down’ was a better word for it, he thought at the sight of him pulling at the sheets and flinging them into the basket.

Dipper wanted to tug his feet under him as usual when he sat like this but hissed as they touched his leg. He inspected the blisters there and instantly realized how painful they were. Some had broken open and he picked at the loose flaps of skin wincing at the contact. He sighed and suddenly Bill was in front of him, dropping the full basket and he flinched.  
Again, he waited for an outburst but the demon kept quiet.

“I could get used to that,” Dipper said and earned a sneer in response.

He thought about telling him to fold everything too but the other’s expression held him back. Despite his angry glare he looked just as exhausted as Dipper felt. His hair was dark with sweat and plastered to his forehead. His chest was heaving from the heat and his skin burned by the sun. Dipper felt almost sorry for him but the picture of him and Mabel was still fresh in his mind. His sister, goddamit, of all people!

He glowered up at the other who had lost his scowl and now looked just really tired. He wanted to walk up the steps past him but Dipper put out a leg and blocked his way. Bill could have easily stepped over it but he turned his head quizzically not even bothering to raise an eyebrow at him.

“If you ever touch her again,” Dipper started and was proud at how stern his voice sounded. “I will find the most terrible way for you to die and think of something to make it even slower.”

Bill’s eyes widened the tiniest bit, but not with fear but anger, and Dipper tried to pull his aching foot out of his reach in case he had finally managed to make him lose his temper. The demon merely chuckled but his eyes flashed dangerously.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he drawled, voice dripping with venom. “How stupid of me. I should have dropped her when you were too clumsy to catch her.”

he smirked when his words hit home. Dipper inhaled sharply glaring as hard as he could..

“I should have just let the nightmare get her, right? Isn’t that what you want, Pine Tree?”

He kneeled down, his face only inches from Dipper’s.

“And before,” he said slowly, almost whispering. “I should have let her succumb to the heat stroke, is that it?”

He flashed a grin that looked more like bared teeth and Dipper swallowed, his mouth dry. “What did you do?” he growled.

Bill blinked slowly, holding his gaze. “I healed her,” he said curtly and Dipper’s shoulders slumped.  
He stared at Bill in disbelief and the smirk returned to the demon’s face

“Didn’t you see how much better she was? You think some lousy wet towels did that?” he scoffed and Dipper felt his face burn as he asked another question.

“Why did you have to kiss her for that?”

BIll’s face went blank and Dipper feared he was now definitely going to lose it but instead a wide grin appeared on it and his eyes glinted with amusement.

“You think I kissed her?” he repeated and it was followed by a laugh so delighted that all the tension that had build up between them suddenly defused.

“Well did you?” Dipper asked, still trying to sound tough but his face was so terribly hot.

Bill’s grin didn’t waver as he leaned closer. “I can show you what I did,” he murmured, his breath ghosting over Dipper’s cheek.

He laid a hand onto his leg and Dipper recoiled at the touch blaming his curiosity for not kicking him.Bill’s fingers traced over his ankle and came to rest on the back of his feet. He held out a hand expectantly for the second one and Dipper slowly pulled it up and placed it in front of him, his legs crossed. Bill, both his hands now on his feet suddenly leaned forward and Dipper jerked back instinctively.

“Relax!” the demon hissed and rolled his eyes when Dipper kept looking at him sceptically.

“What’re you doing?”

Bill sighed and Dipper was certain he would get annoyed with him and leave but he gave him a defeated looks and explained.

“It works like the seals,” he said. “I need three of them to control the flow of energy, you remember that, right?”

“I thought that only goes for gaps,” Dipper interrupted and received a glare.

“Gaps, humans, nightmares… everything is energy if you put it simply. Now…” he continued before Dipper could open his mouth again. “I can transfer some of my energy to anything I want. up until now I used it to heal my body but I can also speed up the process for any other meatsack if I want to. For that I need to be in direct contact though,” he added and Dipper was suddenly very aware of the weight of Bill’s hands on him.

“Now here comes the catch,” he said not hiding how much he enjoyed Dipper’s full attention. “I only have two hands - any more would freak people out - but I need to touch them in three different places for it to work. So I touched Shooting Star’s forehead with mine. It was the quickest and easiest way.” He wriggled his brows teasingly. “See? No kissing although that would have probably worked too.”

Dipper struggled to keep a straight face. Sure, he was relieved that his first impression of the situation had been wrong but the fact that Bill had fed her some of his energy upset him greatly. Why would he even do such a thing? he had saved her from the nightmare and now from a possible life-threatening condition. Now he was half-way to doing the same to Dipper’s own hurt and bleeding feet but what advantage was in there for him?

“Don’t hurt your head, kid,” he said reading his face one again. “It’s not harmful if you do it sparingly. Also it would be a waste if your grunkles came back to find half of their kids already dead, don’t you think?”

Dipper’s breath caught at those words and he tried to pull away but Bill held him in place.

“Keep still,” he growled and instead of his forehead as he had done with Mabel. but his head on his shoulder.

Dipper gasped as a sudden wave of heat washed over him. He felt like his whole body was doused in warm water. When he lifted his hands to either push Bill away or hold onto him, anything to not being drowned in this sensation, he found he could no longer move them. A jolt of pain rushed through his leg and panic rose in his chest. To his relief it barely lasted a second and was quickly replaced by a far more pleasant feeling.  
His body jerked as it obeyed him again and he felt Bill’s fingers leave his skin. The demon lifted his head, a half-smirk on his face.

Dipper’s gaze shot towards his feet and blinked slowly when he could no longer detect any signs of blisters that had been there only seconds ago. Even the scratches and bruises on his legs were gone and his ankle no longer felt swollen.

He met Bill’s eyes again and wrecked his brain for the right words to thank him, fighting his pride which insisted on not doing anything like that ever.  
His thoughts got distracted by the other’s stare, close proximity and smell of clean sweat on his skin. Dipper forced himself to ignore it and the moment passed without him saying or doing anything.  
Bill got up and went inside without looking back and left Dipper with the laundry basket and a head buzzing with thoughts.


	21. XXI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait! I was busy with my new job but I hope to get this updated more regularly from now on.  
> I also want to say thanks for all the support and nice comments I received. They always make my day!

Dipper zipped up his blanket and spread it on his bed. He fluffed up his pillow then looked at the freshly made bed with longing before giving in and flopped down on it. The sheets were cool and smelled clean and he sighed contently feeling tiredness creep up on him.

He thought about Mabel who had fallen asleep in the living room - he had checked on her not ten minutes ago - and allowed himself some rest as well. He closed his eyes and relaxed a little but his mind kept wandering to Bill and the fact that he should not be left unsupervised. He had seen him brooding over the journals again when he had walked upstairs to put the laundry away. On the other hand, he hadn’t really done anything to hurt them. At least not yet. Sure, he had threatened them on multiple occasions but also protected Mabel and him from the nightmares. Yes, maybe he had used him to get the nightmares attention that one night but Dipper assumed he was just too proud to simply ask for their help in the matter. As a demon he had to be used to getting what he wanted with threats and violence so being a vulnerable human had to make a huge dent in his ego, Dipper thought and had to smile.

It still bothered him though that he hadn’t told him about the second nightmare. He could have stopped Mabel from leaving and risking her life. Who knew how many more had escaped the mindscape by now without Bill to keep them in check?  
Did that mean people stopped having them? He himself hadn’t had any dreams at night since coming to the Shack but he concluded that was the effect of his light and restless sleep. That was probably also the reason he was so exhausted all the time. Fighting the nightmare was straining, yes, but he was young and healthy he shouldn’t be bothered too much.

Now that he thought about his encounter the previous night, he hadn’t known Mabel was afraid of earthquakes. Or was it holes? The nightmare had obviously been drawn in by her presence so it had evoked some kind of fear in his sister. Although, he had to admit he had been pretty scared too. But why was it so different from the one he had to fight? Were there different kinds of nightmares?

There were billions of people in the world but when it came down to it most of them would be afraid of the same things. Being chased, getting hurt, dying. Fear of the future, loss of a job, financial difficulties were just the modern-day equivalent for the hard-wired need for survival. In the end everyone was still worrying about the same things during the day and running from the same nightmares during their sleep.

Dipper sighed and only now realized how far he had drifted of already. It was an almost painful process to open his eyes and move his head to not fall asleep completely. He turned onto his back and stretched, his joints cracking loudly.  
When he sat up with a yawn his gaze fell on his feet and the memory of Bill healing them flooded his head. He was curious if Mabel had experienced the same sensation of drowning or if she had been too sick to even realize what had happened to her. He would have ask her later.

He was still very worried about Bill’s growing abilities. On the first day he hadn’t even had enough power to fix his own body and now he was even giving some away for - in Dipper’s case - minor injuries. How much more could he do? Did he really get this much energy from the gaps and sending back nightmares? Why would he display them so readily? He could easily hide them and attack when they least expected it. Although, until now he had always been expecting it and was more surprised at how tame he was in their presence. What was he planning? Turning those questions over in his head did not answer them. It merely left him confused and nervous.

He was about to get up and leave the bedroom when his eyes fell on the pile of clothes in the basket. He had initially wanted to fold them and put them back into the dresser first thing but they were still untouched. He spotted a pair of his pants and remembered that he had promised Bill his shorts.  
Like hell he would give them to him. But he had healed his feet, he reminded himself, and saved Mabel. Twice. Dipper sighed once more, picked up the pants and hoped Bill wouldn’t complain too much if he got those instead.

With a last glance at the basket he turned around and walked downstairs. Maybe he could somehow get Bill to fold the rest of the clothes later. Or he would make him cook lunch. It was now past noon and he was getting hungry.  
He inhaled deeply before entering the kitchen and walking up to Bill. The other looked up from the journals he was reading and quirked an eyebrow as Dipper dropped the pants on the table in front of him.

“That wasn’t the deal,” the demon said in a low voice and looked at him challengingly.

“We never made one,” Dipper shot back and returned his glare.

“I still want those shorts though,” Bill insisted dryly.

“Tough luck! I’m not taking them off,” Dipper growled and turned to leave but then something about the books caught his eye and he stopped dead. He had thought Bill was only reading through them again but apparently he had other plans with them.

“Did you do this?” He pointed at the page and gave Bill a hard look.

An eye as big as his hand now covered the entire two pages making the entry about the HideBehind practically illegible. It looked like one of the seals from the woods but instead of being carved it was drawn onto the page. Dipper was annoyed at Bill for defacing his book but at the same time he was curious why he had put it there of all places so he bit back a snarky comment and watched in silence as Bill opened the second one and started turning the pages.

“What are you doing?” Dipper asked trying to hide the anger in his voice.

Yes, the books were useless but that didn’t give him the right to scribble all over them. Bill ignored him and stopped at a page that was only slightly burned at the edges. Dipper wanted to ask again - maybe even add an insult - when he noticed the knife glinting from beneath the book. Its tip was stained with dark liquid and he assumed that Bill had not used a pen to paint the eye.

Just when he wanted to comment on that Bill picked it up and drew it across his thumb. Scarlet drops stained the book but Bill didn’t even flinch. He moved the digit across the page creating the outer shape of yet another eye. Dipper was so entranced by the process that he didn’t notice when Bill’s hand suddenly moved and he grabbed his wrist.

“Hey!” he yelped in surprise and tried to pull his hand away. The other held him in a firm grip and looked at him with cold eyes. Dipper felt his pulse pick up speed when Bill lifted the knife again with bloodied fingers.

“Let go!” Dipper hissed.

He didn’t think that the demon would seriously wound him, not right after healing him, but he didn’t want to risk the pain either way.  
The more he struggled to free himself the stronger Bill’s hold on him became so he held still and felt his fingers relax a little. Though he was still not allowed to shake them off. He glared down at Bill and the other stared at him intently.

“You said you would help me with the nightmare,” he said quietly and Dipper bared his teeth.

“No, I didn’t!”

“I think I found a way to fight it,” Bill said, not reacting to Dipper’s statement and the other scowled. “But I need your help.” Bill looked at him with pleading eyes and no sign of any malicious intent and Dipper felt his aversion slip away.

“Please,” he added and Dipper’s breath caught.

He directed his gaze to the half-formed seal, the blood already dried to a rusty color and exhaled slowly. Bill took his silence for approval and led his hand to hover over the page.

“I just need a bit of your blood, ok?” he said and brought up the knife again.

Dipper swallowed as he closed the distance between the blade and the skin of his thumb. He reminded himself not to trust Bill so easily but before he was able to fully regret his decision the knife was pulled down in a quick motion, sending a bolt of stinging pain up his arm. He instinctively held his breath and watched Bill press his finger down onto the paper and drag it vertically between the previous lines. The seal’s pupil flashed crimson with Dipper’s blood.

The friction of the paper’s texture stung on the wound but Bill still didn’t release his wrist just yet. He put the knife down and closed the fingers of his now free hand over Dipper’s palm, lifted it to his face and inspected a single drop of blood that seeped from the cut.

Dipper started to feel uncomfortable under the demon’s interest in his wound and flexed his fingers slightly to divert his attention. Bill shot a quick glance at him through his lashes and Dipper’s eyes flitted nervously between him and his bleeding finger. He opened his mouth to break the silence when all of a sudden Bill moved forward and pressed his lips onto his thumb. Before Dipper could react he flicked out his tongue and ran it over the cut.

Dipper forgot to breathe as he felt his hand erupt with the sensation of being submerged in hot water.  
He pulled his hand away again reflexively and this time Bill let him.

“What-?” Dipper breathed and his words failed him. He wiped his hand on his shirt and was surprised when it didn’t sting. Upon taking a closer look he found his finger unmarked, the skin healed without any sign of scarring.  
He met Bill’s eyes and saw the other smirk at his expression. Dipper scoffed and rubbed over the spot where Bill had licked him. No, where he had cut him, he corrected his thoughts.

“So what’re you gonna do with that?” he asked gesturing towards the seals.

Bill’s smirk turned into a grin. “Open a portal,” he said curtly.

It took Dipper a moment to sort through his thoughts. “With the journals?” he asked feeling incredibly stupid.

Bill shook his head slightly still grinning. “Well...kind of,” he said and opened the last of the journals revealing a third seal. “Each of us will take one book and place it around a gap. The seals will-”

“No!” Dipper interrupted and Bill stared at him, eyes wide with surprise.

“I’ll go,” he added a little calmer. “But Mabel stays.”

Bill’s eyes darted to the books and his expression darkened. “There’s three seals, I need three people,” he said condescendingly and tapped his fingers on one of the bloodied pages impatiently.

“So?” Dipper growled. “Last time you did it by yourself. What do you need Mabel for?”

Bill scoffed and leaned back in his chair. “Last time was different.”

“How?” Dipper sighed. He was not going to be fobbed with vague answers any more. Bill needed their help so he had to get used to explaining his plans.

The demon exhaled audibly but less angry than Dipper had expected. “Last time the nightmare wasn’t a real threat.”  
He waited for Dipper to disagree or ask something else but the other wouldn’t fall for his distraction. Instead he raised his eyebrows expectantly urging him to keep talking.

“This one is not a complete illusion,” the demon said after a moment gritting his teeth.

Dipper’s eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean not an illusion?”

“Exactly that,” Bill huffed but didn’t say anymore before getting up and taking a glass from the cupboard. Dipper’s eyes followed him, questions piling up in his head.

“Are you telling me this thing is actually dangerous?”

He felt his knees go weak at the thought of Mabel falling into the hole and he grabbed the back of the chair hard to push it back. His breathing quickened but no air seemed to reach his lungs.

“I’m not sure what’s happening,” Bill almost whispered and there was no trace of a lie in his voice.  
He walked over to the sink and filled the glass with cool water.

“Well you better figure that out soon,” Dipper spat and the demon glared at him. “But you will not use Mabel for that, understood?”

Bill’s eyes flitted to something behind his back.

“Use me for what?”

Dipper spun around to find Mabel standing in the door. He was too startled by her sudden and noiseless appearance to answer her. Bill stepped next to him and held out the glass he had filled to Mabel. She took it with a thankful smile after shooting Dipper a curious look.

“How’re you feeling?” Dipper asked when he had found his voice again and searched her face.

“A lot better,” she said, giving him a genuine smile. “I thought my head was gonna explode but it’s ok now.”

Despite the short second in which it happened Dipper noticed the quick glance she directed at Bill and which he returned with the faintest of smiles. It made him feel left out of some kind of secret they shared between them and it made him angry. The moment was over just as quickly and Dipper shoved the feeling into a corner of his mind for later pondering. It was starting to get quite cluttered in there. But now they had more pressing matters to take care of first.

“What’s that?” she asked, dropped into a chair and eyed the open books curiously. “Is that for fighting the nightmare?”

She looked at Bill and he gave a short nod in reply. Dipper clenched his jaws.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Mabel!” Dipper snapped. “No! Nothing! You’re not doing anything!”

Mabel raised an eyebrow in amusement at her brother’s words and sipped her water.

“Then what were you talking about?” she asked placidly her eyes resting on Bill.

The demon glanced at Dipper waiting for a possible tantrum but when nothing came he huffed and stepped to the table. Dipper watched him with tension rising in his shoulders but he bit back a remark. He didn’t want to lose his temper in front of Mabel again. Besides that he was also curious about Bill’s plan so he decided to wait for his explanation before letting them know he would not allow his sister to take any kind of unnecessary risk.  
He quirked an eyebrow at Bill indicating to start talking.

After a moment of hesitation the blonde pulled one of the journals towards himself and held it up so that the twins could both clearly see the eye on the pages. Mabel tilted her head, her nose wrinkled in disgust at the blood and Dipper remembered that she hadn’t seen any of those seals before.

“We will each take one,” Bill said and pointed to the other books. “I’ll try to find one of the gaps and we’ll position ourselves around it.”

He moved the other two books, pushing one in front of Mabel the other towards Dipper who gave it a bored look. With one finger Bill traced an imaginary line between the journals.

“The books are connected so we can use them to enclose the gap creating a banishing area around it. All we need to do…” He placed his palm flat onto the table in the center of the journal triangle. “...is to get the nightmare here.”

“So you want to use us as bait again?” Dipper blurted out but his voice was calm and steady. He was just stating a fact, after all. Bill didn’t turn his head but he sighed exasperatedly.

“That...and for the seals,” he said and Dipper was surprised at the unexpected honesty. He looked over at Mabel to see her opinion on the matter but her head was turned to study the seal on the book in front of her and her face was hidden behind a curtain of her hair.

“Why do you need the journals? Can’t you just cut the seals into trees like before?” Dipper scoffed and crossed his arms.

Bill groaned and let his head fall backwards theatrically, giving Dipper an upside-down sneer. “The seals won’t work if they’re not connected and the nightmare could just easily tear them down. I told you it’s different this time, Pine Tree.”

He turned around again and the blonde strands fell back over his eyes. Dipper pulled a face at being scolded like that and pressed his lips together. He tried to focus on the memory of trees being pulled into the hole but it seemed hazy, out of focus and like it happened months ago, not just hours. Apparently the nightmare didn’t affect Bill’s memories as much as his.

“We need to be more flexible,” Bill continued, unaware of Dipper’s inner turmoil. “And the journals are perfect for that. Any other complaints?”  
He glanced at Dipper but Mabel was the one who talked.

“You said the seals needed to be connected to work,” she said slowly still staring at the blood-stained page and Dipper saw Bill angle his head slightly.  
“What if the books are too far apart?”

Bill hummed and seemed to turn possible answers around in his head. “They don’t have to physically be in contact to still be ...connected,” he said after a while. “The trees were entwined with each other through their roots and by being part of one big forest. Every single tree can be made into a seal that’s why it’s so convenient to close the gap there. It also works with the vessels in the human body,” he continued and Mabel’s eyes shortly landed on him.

Dipper scoffed. So that’s how Bill did his healing thing, he thought. That explained the need to touch in three different places. Maybe when working on a smaller scale Bill didn’t need seals and the touch of his skin was enough.

“As for the journals…” he looked at Dipper to make sure he was listening. “They were written by the same author and each book is an important part of his work. Not every connection has to be visible.”

Mabel chewed on her lips, lost in her thoughts. Then she picked at the pages with two of her fingers and held it against the light. “What’s with the blood? It’ gross.”

Bill gave a quiet chuckle. “That’s sort of my personal touch,” he said grinning. “But in this body it’s the easiest way to transfer energy. I need it to activate the seals… so to say.”

Mabel gave him a disapproving look and let go of the page before wiping her hand on her jeans.  
Dipper didn’t bother to mention that part of the blood was his. Would Bill want some of Mabel’s too? And why did he use his for only one of the seals? Then again, maybe the demon was just being dramatic and had enjoyed freaking him out. Nonetheless it gave Dipper a weird feeling in his gut when he saw that Bill had kept the journal with his blood for himself when he had arranged them on the table.

Without another word, Mabel got up , put her empty glass into the sink and headed for the door. Dipper was glad to see that she was back to normal. She was walking steadily again and showed no sign of heat stroke any more. He really hated being in debt to Bill for healing her. He chewed his lip and glanced at the demon, raising an eyebrow when he found him already looking at him.

“I wish Shooting Star was as easy to read as you,” Bill said as she had left the room and the sound of her steps had disappeared upstairs.

“What do you mean?” Dipper sneered, not really expecting an answer.

Bill shrugged meaningful and turned to the journals again to check if the pages were dry already. Dipper’s gaze went back to the door through which Mabel had gone and his mouth suddenly felt dry.He didn’t really want to say anything but he knew if he didn’t do it right now any moment afterwards would be too late. Also he didn’t want Bill to think he was afraid. He looked back at the demon and coughed quietly to get his attention. If he would make fun of him he could just get angry again and that was a feeling easier to carry around than guilt and shame.

“I...uh…-”. Suddenly Dipper’s tongue felt too heavy and he licked his lips nervously. “I just wanted … you know…” God, why was this so difficult?

Bill waited patiently, scratching a stray drop of blood off the table absentmindedly.

“Thanks… for uh….” Dipper watched closely but Bill’s face remained stoic. There was no sign of a frown. Or even a smirk.

“Thanks for saving Mabel,” he finally managed and his heart leapt into his throat.

He longed to look away but he didn’t want to seem embarrassed so he held Bill's gaze. He mentally prepared a few insults in case the other would now laugh at him. A second later he couldn’t remember a single one.

That smile was the last thing he had expected.  
Although Bill’s lips had barely moved, the look he gave him was kind and sincere and Dipper was caught completely off guard.

“Welcome,” Bill said quietly then focused on the seals again, his expression remaining a little softer.

Dipper sighed. He had been prepared to feel awkward, even humiliated after having to thank the demon but for some reason he didn’t.


	22. XXII

When Mabel returned the tension in the room lifted slightly. Dipper hadn’t said anymore and Bill was still brooding over the seals. Despite getting the load of having to thank the demon off his chest, Dipper still felt uneasy around him.  
He looked up and saw that Mabel had put on a pair of hotpants and a T-shirt and had exchanged her old sneakers for running shoes. There was no way to keep her from going with them now, Dipper thought with a sigh. She looked ready for an adventure of nightmare hunting and in terms of stubbornness she was just as bad as him.  
She carried a pair of Dipper’s old shoes and held them up for Bill to inspect. The demon glanced up from the books and gave her a curious look.

“Put them one,” she told him and gave them a slight shake. “You can’t go out barefoot again.”

Bill smirked but didn’t say anything. He held them up and pulled a face before turning to Dipper. “Are these yours? When was the last time you washed them?”

“You don’t have to wear them, you know!” Dipper scoffed and crossed his arms. “And who washed their shoes anyway?” he added a little quieter.

“Eww, bro,” Mabel snorted. “Don’t worry,” she said addressing Bill. “He hasn’t worn them in ages. I found them at the back of the closet. They must have been there since our last visit and someone must have cleaned them eventually.”

Bill gave a thankful nod and put them on the floor. He raised to put on Dipper’s pants when Mabel held out something else for him.

“Here,” she said and Dipper could have sworn there was a slight blush on her cheeks. “I didn’t have any … regular ones but I thought you’d like them.”  
In her hand was a pair of yellow socks. “I can also get you some of Dipper’s if you like them better,” she said shyly.

“No, these are perfect,” Bill said and held them up.

Now Dipper saw that they had brown spots and a cartoony face of a giraffe printed on it. He couldn’t suppress a chuckle as he imagined Bill actually wearing them. The demon shot him a glare but he kept grinning. Mabel rarely packed normal clothes when going on holiday. She had to tone down her crazy style for college every day so she made up for that in her spare time. She had often enough forced him into equally awful outfits so seeing someone else as her victim was not only refreshing but outright hilarious.

“Don’t mind him,” Mabel scoffed. “He’s just jealous.”

“Very,” Dipper replied. “But I was running out of socks anyway so maybe let him have yours from now on, ok? Ridiculous socks is exactly what’s missing in his outfit.”  
He laughed and Mabel rolled her eyes.

“Can we please be adults now?” she said dramatically and turned on her heels. “I think we have more important things to worry about now, don’t you think?”.  
She walked out the room and Dipper heard the back door open and her footfalls on the porch.

Dipper’s smile left him and he sighed deeply.  
Great. Had that been really necessary? He had never mocked her style before so why did he now all of a sudden? She had just given Bill some socks so why the big deal?  
Obviously, he didn’t want her and Bill getting along so well because … he was dangerous… right? He just wanted to protect her from him. Isn’t that what a good brother would do?  
Then why was she outside now, probably angry at him?  
He rubbed his temples feeling a faint throb.

“You need to drink more,” Bill said and Dipper snapped out of his thoughts.

“What?”

“Your head,” the demon explained pointing at him. He had started putting on the pants Dipper had given him earlier.

Dipper dropped his hands and sat down in the chair closest to him, propping his head on his palms. He watched Bill dress and saw the other grin at him. “Don’t sulk, Pine Tree. I’m sure Shooting Star will let you borrow some from her too someday.”

Dipper rolled his eyes as Bill sat down again and pulled the socks on. His feet now looked like small giraffes poking their heads out of a pair of pants and Dipper involuntarily smiled at the surreality of it all. Even Bill looked pleased with the look and flexed his toes a few times.

“You look stupid,” Dipper said but his smile didn’t waver.

“Shooting Star was right,” Bill sighed. “You really are jealous. I think yellow suits me very well.”

Dipper huffed and his gaze fell on the door again. He hoped Mabel hadn’t gone ahead without them. Then he remembered the books and Bill’s plan and reminded himself that Mabel wouldn’t leave without it. They depended on them. And on Bill, now that he thought about it. He just hoped everything would work out better than last night.

Suddenly he felt something touch his leg and jumped. He looked down and saw Bill’s socked foot over his, the giraffe smiling up at him stupidly.

“What does the giraffe want?” Dipper asked dryly but he couldn’t keep a straight face. He had to admit it looked kind of funny.

Bill wiggled his toes and the face started to move awkwardly.

“It’s eating your foot, Pine Tree.”

Dipper stared at the sock nibbling on him for a moment then looked up. The demon’s face was serious but there was the faint tug of a grin on the corner of his lips.  
“Nom nom,” Bill added stoically, waiting for a reaction.

Dipper shot him an annoyed glance at first but when he smiled Bill grinned right back. It made his chest hurt very faintly and he decided to ignore it.

“I’ll get my shoes,” Dipper said pulling his foot away and getting up. “And some normal socks,” he added but didn’t turn to look at the other’s expression. It was either a scowl or a smirk and right now he couldn’t look at either.

 

Not five minutes later he joined Mabel on the porch. She sat on the sofa and tapped her foot nervously. Dipper looked for the right words to reassure her or scare her enough to make her want to stay home but then Bill stepped outside and let the door fall shut behind him and they both jumped.  
The stack of journals was held tightly in his arms and he looked at them impatiently. Without another word he descended the steps, expecting the twins to follow him. Mabel jumped to her feet almost immediately and Dipper sighed in defeat.

The sun had lost some of its power but the afternoon air was still stifling and heavy with the promise of a thunderstorm. Dipper hoped they would be back before it hit them. When they reached the edge of the forest he already felt sweat trickle down his back and he was glad to find some cooler air underneath the trees.

They stepped into the shade and started walking, Bill leading them first in a straight line until the shack was hidden behind large trunks and undergrowth. Now that they were properly equipped they were able to move much faster and Dipper didn’t need to worry about the soles of his feet and had time to observe their surroundings.  
The few rays of sunshine that found their way through the dense foliage shone onto the forest floor and painted it with beautiful patches of golden light. Despite the gloomy atmosphere the woods always seemed to behold, it made the forest seem less frightening.  
Their footsteps were muffled by the soft earth and they only sound they heard was of their own laboured breathing as they sidestepped fallen trees and low hanging branches. The occasional bird was alerted to their presence when a twig cracked under their step and raised noisily into the sky but despite that they found themselves engulfed in almost complete silence.

Dipper glanced at Mabel as they carefully avoided a rather large anthill and she looked back at him with questioning eyes. Dipper shrugged a shoulder in response. He tried to push away any doubt he held about Bill’s plan but the longer they walked - and it had only been a few minutes at most and he had already begun to feel queasy - the more he prayed they weren’t being tricked.

Bill didn’t look back at them once but seemed to follow a trail only he could perceive. He stopped briefly from time to time, tilting his head and then kept walking even faster, not caring if the twins were keeping up with him or not. He didn’t wait and he didn’t talk.  
When Dipper decided he could not stand the silence any more and opened his mouth to ask where the hell they were going, Bill suddenly stopped.

He held up a hand to gesture Dipper to be quiet, even though he still hadn’t turned around, and searched the trees around them with his eyes. Mabel followed his gaze but when she didn’t find anything interesting, reached out a hand and closed her fingers over Dipper’s sleeve.  
Startled by the gesture he gave her - what he hoped was - a reassuring smile but must have looked more like a pained smirk, he realized as he saw Mabel’s face mimik his. He didn’t dare to whisper anything to her in case Bill was actually looking for something important and any form of noise would throw of his concentration.

After another tense minute he moved again and veered off to his right to continue their journey parallel to where Dipper assumed the main road had to be. If he was right then they were now directly headed towards the nightmare. With every step they took he feared the ground opening up ahead or even right beneath them.

They were now entering and older part of the woods and the faint light had not allowed a dense underbrush to grow. It made walking easier but the shadows lurking behind the trees sent a shiver down Dipper’s spine. The demon sped up even more and he was now closer to running than walking and it was slowly taking its toll on him. His shoulders rose and fall with each pant and his skin was slick with sweat. Dipper doubted he looked any better after struggling to keep up. They wouldn’t be able to keep up their speed for very much longer. Even Mabel who never shied away from physical exercise was out of breath and wiped her sleeve across her forehead.  
If they had to start running now, Dipper thought, they would be at a great disadvantage. Hopefully Bill’s banishing circle - or whatever he’d called it - would spare them the extra endeavor.

As if on cue Bill stopped once more and the twins were relieved to get a break. He picked out the first of the journals and shoved it into Mabel's hands. She held onto it reflexively and Dipper shot Bill a hard look.

"What do I do with this?" Mabel asked, her voice steady but with a slightly higher pitch.

She held the book up as Bill reached for it and turned the pages to the seal in the center of the book. Dipper gulped. In the dim light of the forest the blood looked almost black and the sight chilled him.

“Just put your hand over it,” Bill instructed Mabel and waited for her to comply.

Dipper saw his sister hesitate as her palm hovered over the page. He wanted to warn her not to touch the bloody mark but in that moment she moved down and let her fingers graze over the dark lines. Dipper’s breath caught in his throat as he assumed something to happen. Even Mabel looked around expectantly.

Bill rolled his eyes and huffed at their reaction. “Relax! It only works if all three of us touch it at the same time. So for now…” He pushed the book back at Mabel gently. “...just keep your hand on it, ok?”

Mabel gave a brief nod, her lips pressed tightly together. Dipper wished she had stayed home.

“And remember..” Bill added before turning his back on her. “Reality is an illusion. The nightmare can’t hurt you, understand?”

Dipper saw Mabel nod once more but Bill had already started walking again.

“Are just going to leave her here?” he asked perplexed and looked Mabel over. She clutched the journals with on hand, the other was pressed firmly onto the seal.

“We talked about this, Pine Tree,” Bill replied, his voice low with suppressed anger. “Now keep moving.”

“I’m staying with her.”

Dipper inhaled audibly as Bill’s head snapped around and he stared at him furiously. He heard Mabel whisper his name. In sympathy or as a warning, Dipper wasn’t sure.

“I’m not leaving here alone with that ...thing again.”

He watched Bill walk towards him and swallowed around his suddenly dry tongue.

“We don’t have time for this!” Bill snarled and attempted to reach for his arm. A quick step back on Dipper’s side prevented it and the demon’s fingers only graced his shirt.

For a second it looked like Bill was about to lose his temper completely. Dipper saw rage burn in his eyes, his lips stretched over clamped jaws. He saw how much effort it took him to regain his posture and breathed audibly when the demon turned away with a groan. Had his stubbornness really paid off this time?  
Bill shifted the remaining books to his left arm and ran his free hand through his hair. When he looked at Dipper again his face was docile again with only the faintest hint of impatience.

“I know how much you care about Shooting Star,” he said and Dipper was taken aback by the sudden change of his demeanor. “But I promise you this is safe for her.”

The brunette pulled a face but could no longer stand the demon’s gaze. Instead he locked eyes with Mabel. She tried a small smile and failed.

“I don’t believe you,” he said quietly without looking at the demon. He was still waiting for the tantrum and he was sure it would come if he pushed him a little further.

“I wouldn’t have brought her if I wasn’t sure,” Bill said shortly and Dipper almost thought he really meant it. Yet he couldn’t help the bitter feeling spreading in his stomach.  
“She already faced the nightmare once and I’m sure she can do it again.”

“I don’t want her to,” Dipper interrupted. “Mabel…” he started and his words caught in his chest. He couldn’t say how he didn’t want to see his sister falling again. Despite their first encounter with the nightmare being a blur in his memory, this was something he felt like he would remember for a very long time. He would not risk that again.

Bill seemed to read his thoughts again and a faint smirk played around his cheeks. “You know, she would have made it if you hadn’t panicked, Pine Tree.”

Dipper felt a weight drop in his chest. He looked at Bill and found him staring back at him apathetically. “What do you mean?” he asked defensively but he knew exactly what the demon was trying to tell him. “It wasn’t my fault! The nightmare-”

Bill scoffed loudly. “Don’t try to fool yourself, kid. It’s pathetic.”

Dipper’s eyes went wide. Was Bill telling the truth?  
He had talked about nightmares becoming reality when one believed in them so had he really believed in a giant bottomless hole opening up? It seemed so. Had he almost lost his sister? That he didn’t want to think about.

Bill smirked at his expression and when he was sure he would not be defied again, turned to Mabel once more.  
“You heard me,” he told her and Mabel ripped her attention away from her brother who was staring off into the distant trees not meeting her eyes.  
“Don’t let it get to you! It’s just a product of your imagination! Don’t run, don’t scream and don’t be afraid of it, am I clear?”

Dipper saw Mabel flinch at the harsh words out of the corner of his eyes.  
“If you’re lucky you won’t even have to see it,” he added a little more gently. “But whatever you do, keep your hand on the seal, ok?”  
“Yes,” Mabel said as confidently as she could as she desperately tried to catch Dipper’s eyes again.

“Now let’s go,” Bill ordered and with great reluctance and his heart still heavy in his chest, Dipper complied. He felt Mabel’s eyes on him but couldn’t bring himself to turn back to look at her. She would read defeat and fear in his face and he didn’t want her to see him like that. He should be the one protecting her and instead he was leaving her alone in the woods with a dangerous monster close by, letting himself be pushed around by someone else. He really was pathetic.

He knew Mabel was watching them as they began to disappear behind the large trees and dark shadows of the forest as they walked deeper into the woods. Dipper imagined her racing heart as she was left to herself with nothing but her own thoughts to accompany her. But she was strong and her expression determined and Dipper envied her.

They walked in silence, Dipper following Bill a few steps behind, letting the other lead the way. He felt angry at Bill for calling him out like that but the guilt and reproach he held towards himself drowned it out almost entirely. If Mabel was able to handle the nightmare better without him then he would have to step back and trust her. And maybe Bill was right and they encountered it first and could defeat it before it even reached her.

He sighed quietly and followed Bill stepping around a large patch of underbrush and dead trees. A flash of color caught his eye as the demon lifted his leg to step over a moss covered trunk and Dipper was reminded of the cartoony socks the other was wearing this very moment. It felt very odd and out of place. Still it fit Bill, Dipper decided. Since his appearance not even three days ago he had always been unpredictable. Maybe that was what kept throwing Dipper off. He liked everything in order and logical and the demon represented the exact opposite.  
Just like Mabel sometimes, he thought. No wonder Bill liked her better.

“I hope you know where we’re going,” he remarked to pull himself out of his thoughts. He needed to concentrate on the task ahead, he could talk to Mabel when it was over.  
Bill didn’t even turn his head.

“The nightmare was way back by the road,” he continued despite being ignored. “Why are we here?”

Now he finally saw a reaction. Bill’s shoulders tensed and Dipper could practically feel him rolling his eyes.  
“Because we’re not looking for it,” the demon merely said without caring to explain.

Dipper huffed and jogged a few strides to catch up to him. Now walking beside him he tried to get Bill’s attention but his face was fixed on something further ahead.

“You’re looking for the gap, right?” Dipper tried again and this time he thought he saw Bill glance at him before blinking and returning his gaze to the wall of trees around them.

Dipper looked back to maybe spot Mabel but they had gone too far and there was no sign of her anymore. Suddenly he felt very alone.

He turned his head back and was startled as he found Bill looking at him.  
“Are you scared, Pine Tree?”

It took Dipper an endless second to process the question. He blinked and Bill quirked an eyebrow in amusement. He wanted to say no, laugh it off, insult Bill for even asking something like that but his tongue felt heavy in his mouth and his lips refused to move.

Bill smirked. “Good,” he said pushing one of the two journals he had been carrying into his hands. “Makes it easier for the nightmare to find us.”

With the last journal in hand he stepped away and left Dipper looking after him as he was soon swallowed by the shadows.


	23. XXIII

For the first ten minutes Dipper was convinced Bill would return any second but the more time passed, the more this feeling was replaced by concern and absolute desorientation. He remembered the row of trees through which the demon had disappeared but he was not able to recall where they had initially come from. The thought of not knowing in which direction to go to get to Mabel drove him crazy.

A flutter of feathered wings made him look up and he saw a jay sore from the treetop above him to a lower branch. Its shining black eyes examined him briefly before he stretched its wings again and glided effortlessly through the few sun beams that managed to find their way through the dense canopy. Dipper watched the light reflect off its bright feathers and wondered why they hadn’t seen more wildlife. Many years prior the woods had been buzzing with all kinds of creatures, and not just supernatural ones, but since their disappearance the forest seemed to have lost almost all its usual inhabitants. The woods were vast and hardly any hunter ever found their way into it so where were all the animals? Had they fled due to the appearance of the nightmares? Or Bill? Or something even more dangerous? The thought chilled him and he wished the forest around him wasn’t so eerily quiet. He wondered if Mabel felt as lost as him and he wished they could have stayed together.

His eyes moved across the trees, hoping to maybe spot another bird but the forest remained unmoved. Not even a breeze was rustling through the leaves. Dipper shifted his weight nervously from one leg to the other, secretly hoping Bill had miscalculated the nightmare’s whereabouts. It was not that he was scared - maybe a little - or that he wasn’t keen on fighting mysteries again, he simply hated that someone other than him was in charge and until now he had done practically nothing to help.  
Maybe he should really stop fighting Bill and rather concentrate on helping him instead. His stomach churned at that but defying him had led to anything except constantly being at each other’s throat. The sooner they got rid of the nightmare the more time he had thinking about a way to send Bill back to wherever he had come from. For good.  
He leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree contemplating his decision. It didn’t mean he had to start trusting Bill, right? He sighed and the sound was loud in his ears.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t feel the faint trembling of the ground beneath him. Only as the tree behind him creaked warningly did he notice the low rumbling. His head whipped around to a loud rustling of leaves and a distant thud. Wondering if it was coming from the direction in which Bill had gone, his eyes searched the wood around him for any sign of danger. He forced himself to breathe evenly but his heart had already begun beating fast.  
This time they were prepared, he convinced himself. He knew what was coming and he would fight it. Another cracking sound followed yet again by a muffled crash made him jump. It was getting closer. Dipper kept staring ahead as he thought he saw movement among the distant trees. He swallowed around his dry tongue and felt his hands and feet grow cold.

With a sickening splintering sound a large trunk suddenly tipped, its branches tearing at the trees surrounding it. The one next to it followed just as easily as it was pulled down. A loud crash thump echoes through the forest as another tree hit the ground. This one was even closer and Dipper could see its unearthed roots reaching into the sky like fingers before it was sucked downwards and what had taken decades to grow was gone in seconds. Dipper could only stare in shock as more trees met the same fate. They tore open the canopy and in the new light he saw the black gaping mouth of the nightmare.

It was moving right towards him, its edges eating away at the forest, swallowing earth and whole plants alike. Dipper swore under his breath and tore his eyes away. With numb fingers he tried to open the journal as he remembered what he was supposed to do.  
He fumbled with the pages as another tree crashed down only a few feet ahead of him and the book almost slipped from his hands. He kept telling himself that it was only an illusion but the shaking of the ground as the trees toppled over and gust of air their branches rushed to the ground felt so very real.

His fingers tore at the pages frantically until he finally reached the one with the seal. What if it didn’t work? Was Bill waiting already? What if something had happened to Mabel? With one last look at the falling tree and roar of splitting ground all around him he reached for the bloody eye. His fingers barely grazed the page when a wave of nausea washed over him. It felt like someone had pushed him over the edge of a cliff and it left him winded and dizzy with panick. One hand shot up to his chest, the other grabbed for support but only found empty space. The sound the journal made as it hit the forest floor was swallowed by the roar of the nightmare.  
Dipper registered the loss of the book only in a corner of his mind, the rest of him was occupied with staying on his feet. He shut his eyes and tried breathing through the horrible sensation like he usually did in his dreams but it only seemed to make it worse. It was like riding a roller coaster with eyes closed and he did his best not to throw up. He managed to fixate his gaze onto the tree he had been leaning on only a minute before but when the ground shifted and it began to tilt like the others, he realized how close the hole had to be by now and his heart jumped in his chest. He looked down at the book to his feet in a last attempt to retrieve it when another attack of vertigo hit him and left him gasping for air. He felt acid burn his throat that made his eyes water and he desperately tried to push it back down.  
The ground under his right foot suddenly moved and through a haze of tears he saw the pine needled covering the forest floor trickle away under his shoe. The idea of the nightmare being only imagination had long since left his mind.  
He reeled back on shaky legs, too frightened to cry out as his knees gave in. His head started to feel light and his vision narrowed dangerously. One last time he grabbed for the journal with weak hands before the world around him vanished and darkness took engulfed him.

 

Adrenaline was still rushing into his bloodstream as he slowly regained consciousness. Only a minute had passed but time was irrelevant at the moment and a concept his numb mind was not able to grasp, Dipper had a vague feeling that he was supposed to move but the necessary muscles and nerves wouldn’t obey him. He began to be dimly aware of all the sensations his body had been trying to haul at him for the last seconds.

There was a faint yet painful throb at the side of his head and a more prominent and sharper sing in his shoulder and elbow. It wasn’t too bad but he had an urge to touch them or at least get his weight off of them. His body shifted slightly and he was immensely relieved that he could still move. The good feeling was only short lived as the rest of his senses flooded his brain with neglected information. The hard pressure on his back told him he was lying on the forest floor, his skin being pricked by pine needles and twigs. There were loud noises he couldn’t place and when he tried to turn his head away he found the nausea still there, even if the need to vomit had subsided.

There was also one other thing he slowly came to comprehend but had been too occupied to comprehend until now: He couldn’t see.  
As his body was on its best to fully emerge into consciousness, Dipper felt the cold hands of fear grip his heart. Possible explanations started to form in his awakening brain. It was too dark to see, he had gone blind, the nightmare had gotten him, all of the above.

He tried to stay rational but as soon as his limbs were functional again his hands shot to his face, clawing at a strangely familiar sensation. There was a hand pressed firmly over his eyelids and that evoked both panic and relief. It made him furious to be deprived of his vision but at least he wasn’t alone. The hand itself prevented any atempt to open his eyes but was gentle enough as not to hurt him. At first he had thought it was Mabel but the hand was larger and he felt rough fingertips brush against his cheek.

“Relax.” He hear Bill’s voice above him and the realization of what had happened hit Dipper with full force. He tried to pry the demon’s hands away to look for the journal. Oh god, he had dropped it. How stupid had he been to mess up such a simple task. He felt another hand grab his arm.

“Don’t!” Bill told him. “You’re not ready yet.”

Dipper let his hands be shoved aside reluctantly and he growled. “Ready for what?”

His voice was hoarse and he coughed, feeling a sting in his throat.  
“Let me go!”

He braced his arms behind him and pushed himself up, slowly enough so that Bill could keep his hand on his face. He felt incredibly ridiculous.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, failing at keeping the annoyance out of his voice.

“To keep you from getting us killed,” Bill snapped back equally agitated.

He helped Dipper into a sitting position and the other was glad when the pressure on his face lifted slightly.

“Did it work?” Dipper asked. “The gap!...Did you close it?” he pressed when the demon didn’t answer. He thought about his sister. “How’s Mabel?”

Finally Bill made a sound but it was little more than a sigh. “I guess Shooting Star’s ok,” he said slowly and Dipper could tell his face was turned away.

He guessed? Well, it was something but not good enough. He wanted to find her as soon as possible.

“Can I open my eyes now?” It was more of a demand than a question and when Bill didn’t move he began to peel the fingers off his face himself.

“Not yet!” Bill hissed and pushed down harder again, making Dipper see stars explode behind his eyelids.

“What the fuck is going on?” he barked back, losing his patience with the demon’s vague answers and jerked his head to get him to lose his hold on him.

“Pine Tree!” Bill warned him but his voice held no anger. His hand was still firmly in place but now he added his other one to grab Dipper’s chin and keep him from moving.  
“Ok, ok,” he finally said and Dipper heard him take a deep breath. “But you have to answer a question first.”

Dipper was sure Bill could feel as he rolled his eyes but he didn’t want to argue yet again.  
“And what question would that be?”

He jumped slightly when he sensed Bill’s voice suddenly very close to his ear.

“Where are you?”

Dipper was rendered speechless by the sheer redundancy of that question.

“Excuse me?” he sneered but Bill kept holding him still.

“Answer me, Pine Tree! Where are you. right. now?”

Judging by the demon’s serious tone Dipper decided to humor him. He had long since given up on spiting the other any more than necessary. In the end he usually got what he wanted anyway.

”Well…some lunatic dragged me and my sister into the woods to fight a monster. With nothing but a book to defend us and now I’m sitting here in the dirt not knowing what’s happening around me. Happy?”

Bill’s voice carried a smirk. “Good.”

He shifted and removed one of his hands from Dipper’s head. “Now focus, this is important.”  
The demon took Dipper’s hand and led it to rest on the ground. He felt pine needles poke his skin and dry leaves crumble under his palm.

“Hold on to this,” he heard Bill say and before he could ask what he meant the demon’s remaining hand lifted and Dipper blinked as his surroundings came into view.

He had expected the nightmare to be gone but instead he found himself in the middle of it.

Only a few inches separated him from the edge of a giant hole. It had stopped expanding but Dipper knew if he moved ever so slightly it would start again. With the clearing of his vision the vertigo he had completely forgotten returned instantly, twisting his stomach and making his head spin. He reeled back only to find another rift had opened up there too.  
They were completely trapped by the hole now as big as a football field.  
He could understand why Bill hadn’t wanted him to see this first thing when he came to. He would have panicked and sent them both falling.

Not that he felt much calmer now but he remembered Bill’s words about the ground. He reached out his fingers and brought them down above the edge in front of him with Bill watching his every move. The ground began to quiver as he leaned forward and a nearby tree at the edge across from him tilted slightly towards the gaping rift but Dipper didn’t stop.  
When his fingers were level with the piece of ground he was sitting on he was not really surprised when cool earth and leaves brushed over his fingertips.

The rift is not real, he told himself. Just an illusion. A nightmare, but still only a dream. He looked at the abyss and his vision changed.  
The hole was still there but like seeing through a veil he could make out the original forest floor. It was like seeing two different pictures at the same time and it sure didn’t help his vertigo. He tried to concentrate on the one that wasn’t the black nothingness and swallowed the nausea.  
Don’t believe in it, it’s not really there. He pushed himself up on strained legs. The ground trembled again as a warning again but Dipper found it easy to ignore.

“This is another one of your facing-your-nightmares-challenge, isn’t it?” he asked Bill not turning his head in fear of losing the contents of his stomach. If only he could wish that sickening feeling away too.

“You could call it that,” Bill said and got up beside him. “But you’re doing quite well. Better than your first time at least.”

Dipper huffed. “So what do we do now?” he asked.

“Whatever you have to do to get over your fears,” Bill smirked.

Even without looking at him Dipper could tell he wasn’t worried any more. That either meant he trusted him to face the nightmare by himself or he had another plan in store already. Probably both.  
Dipper lifted a foot and stepped closer to the edge. Mabel had already walked over it so why couldn’t he? Before he made the first step, however, a thought occurred to him and he turned to Bill.

“Say.. if I get it to retreat … I mean - when… how do we close the gap?” he asked and felt his face heat up with embarrassment.  
Bill quirked an eyebrow at him.

“I lost the journal,” he admitted and the demon pursed his lips.

“Dammit, Pine Tree,” he snarled but didn’t suppress a short laugh, much to Dipper’s irritation. Wasn’t he mad? He didn’t seemed to be phased by that information at all.

“Who knew it would be so difficult for you to just hold something,” he chuckled. “I knew I should have taken your sister instead.”

Bill threw his hands up dramatically and Dipper had a hard time pretending the knot in his chest wasn’t there. It took more effort than denying the huge rift directly in front of him.  
He scoffed and turned away, making Bill laugh even more.

“It’s ok, don’t worry about it,” he said after a while. “I got it covered.”

He gave Dipper a pat on the back and pushed him lightly. “Now go! I don’t want to be stuck here any longer.”

Dipper held his breath and stepped forward.  
Bill’s words had made him forget his fear completely and when his foot touched the ground where his eyes said there wasn’t one the entire area around them changed back into a regular forest again. He had kind of expected that to happen but was still immensely relieved when he found himself on steady ground again. The nausea finally left him and he could breathe freely once again.

“Yes!” Bill cheered. “You did it, Pine Tree. At least you’re good for some things.”

Dipper waved him off and looked around casually, yet he couldn’t deny that he felt at least a little proud. He seemed to get the hang of this nightmare-fighting-thing.  
A large shape in the distance caught his attention and when he squinted his eyes he made out a couple of trees lying on their side. They didn’t look rotten but like someone had cut them down recently. Had they been there when he got here?

Before his mind could dwell on it, Bill walked over to him.  
“Now one more thing left to do,” he said and his voice wasn’t so cheerful anymore.

He stepped short behind Dipper and the other felt fingers wrap around his wrist.  
He really had to stop doing that. Dipper hated being pulled like this. But Bill didn’t pull him.  
His fingers merely closed gently around his arm and Dipper didn’t see the need to shake him off.

“We still have to close the gap,” the demon almost whispered and a sudden flash of hot pain raced through Dipper’s body.  
He wanted to scream but could only gasp as his breath was knocked out of him. He felt like choking and the hand on his wrist was burning hot and scorching his skin. But before the rest of his senses caught on the sensation was over and for a moment Dipper thought he had imagined it all.  
His head snapped around to Bill and he glared at him furiously

“Sorry,” the demon said and dropped his hand. “It’s not easy to control ...in this body.”

The demon gave him an apologetic look and Dipper wanted to yell at him but he suddenly felt very dizzy and his heart beat frantically in his chest. He was tired and weak and felt like fainting again any moment.

“What d’you mean? What did you control?” he asked but got no answer. What a surprise.  
With blurred vision he saw the demon turn his back to him and start moving. Dipper was shaking with anger and exhaustion. What had Bill done to him? He wanted to hold him back but even just standing took all his remaining energy. Thinking about the long walk ahead made him feel sick all over again.  
He walked very carefully for a few steps and when his legs didn’t threaten to give in he turned around once more. Surreality fogged his brain and the memory of a giant hole seemed so very ridiculous in the afternoon glow. It had already started to slip from his mind.

One thing, however, he could not forget as he started to follow Bill on their way back:  
The fallen trees were still there and he wondered how much of the nightmare had really been an illusion after all.


	24. XXIV

Dipper's vision blurred in and out of focus with every step. His head was filled with a faint high pitched sound and his pulse was loud in his ears. The uneven ground of the forest was hard on his weak knees and more than once he had almost lost his balance, grabbing for trunks and branches to keep him upright.  
He wanted to make sense of the whole situation but the more he strained his senses and brain, the further the answers seemed to slip away from his mind. With slowly building frustration and cold sweat forming on his forehead, he tried to keep up with the light haired person in front of him. Once or twice questions or instructions had been directed at him but he couldn't remember if he had reacted in any way or just kept struggling with the other's fast pace.

As soon as the adrenaline had washer out of his blood, it became even harder to maintain a consistent walking speed. He was falling behind fast.  
He debated calling out for Bill but couldn't think of anything to say. Also his pride prevented it.

As the distance between them grew Bill finally seemed to take pity on him and even if he didn’t stop to wait he slowed down enough to let the other catch up to him fairly quickly. Dipper was worried he wouldn’t be able to match his pace if Bill started walking faster again so when the blonde reached back for him he didn’t immediately realize he was offered an arm.  
He tried to get a glimpse of Bill’s face to detect any form of tricks or evil intentions but he was facing straight ahead without any distinct expression. Only when Dipper didn’t react to it did the demon shoot him an impatient glance, letting his arm drop to his side again.

Now Dipper regretted not having taken it and let his eyes dart to the other’s hand briefly.  
He blamed his still foggy brain for his irrational actions and despite being too proud to let himself be dragged along by Bill he reached out in turn and held onto his shoulder for support. Bill glanced at him clearly surprised but didn’t seem to be appalled by the sudden contact. He didn’t pull him along but provided enough support to keep him from being slowed by every branch or rock in his path. Dipper too found it a lot easier to walk like this but attributed it to the fact that they were leaving the area of the nightmare.

Once again the sensation of being woken from a deep sleep seeped into his body. His head started to clear and previously mundane thoughts suddenly became important. One of the was of the journal. He’d dropped his. Had Bill picked it up? He stretched his neck to check but the demon wasn’t even carrying his own. Had he left his too?  
First he destroyed the few pages that were still kind of legible and now he had left them to rot in the woods? It had seemed so important to him to hold onto them and now he had discarded them just like that? It made no sense.

Bill caught his confused and increasingly angry look and returned an impatient one.  
“If you don’t move a little faster we’ll still be here tomorrow,” he said without the slightest trace of humor.

 

Dipper inhaled to snap back at him when he felt a hand on the small of his back pushing him forward roughly. He gasped in surprise and almost tripped. At the last second he caught himself on Bill’s shoulder and glared at him. His fingers dug into the other’s tendons a little harder than necessary but the demon only grinned. He wanted to push him away but Bill quickly slipped his arm around him further, pulling him in again.  
He chuckled quietly when Dipper’s expression changed from startled confusion to angry suspicion only to finally settle on embarrassed surrender.

“Don’t make me carry you, Pine Tree,” he snickered and Dipper turned his face away finding great importance in studying the forest floor.  
He couldn’t think of any remark that wouldn’t lead to Bill making fun of him so he endured the silence, pretending the hand on his waist wasn’t there.  
With a sigh he threw his pride out the window and decided - only this one time - he would let Bill help him. Afterall, they were way faster like this and he didn’t want to keep Mabel waiting any longer. She had to be worried.

The further they walked the better Dipper began to feel. He was still feeling weak but his walking became steadier and he no longer had to rely on Bill to keep him from tripping over his own feet. He still held onto him a little just in case.  
What had been wrong with him anyway? Was it the after-effect of the nightmare? Then again, he hadn’t really slept well during the past days and the permanent worrying, his nerves constantly on edge were taking its toll on him. The stress of being face to face with another nightmare had probably added to that. Maybe that was why he had lost consciousness before?  
Or had he really? He couldn’t remember clearly anymore and every time he tried his memory flooded him with pictures of falling trees, endless blackness and the journal lying among dead leaves. The thoughts made him feel sick in his stomach and he shook his head to get rid of them.

“You ok?” Bill asked and Dipper was surprised at how genuinely concerned he sounded.

“I’m fine,” he answered curtly and a tad too snappy for what he had intended.

The other’s reaction was hidden behind an expressionless face but the arm around him dropped from his side.  
Dipper mourned the loss of contact for a split second before he caught himself doing it and let go of Bill’s shoulder as well, directing his attention on walking. They had to get close to Mabel now and she didn’t need to see them like that. He hoped she was alright.

There was movement behind one of the trees and his heart skipped a beat before his brain registered what it was.

“Hey bro!” Mabel called out to him as she approached them.  
Dipper noticed that at least she was still holding onto her journal religiously but had closed it and tucked it under her arm.

“How did it go?” she asked glancing between him and Bill expectantly.

The way she looked at the demon, however, gave Dipper a weird feeling but he couldn’t put a finger on what exactly it was that made him uneasy. She looked a little pale in the face but her smile was genuine and she sounded as cheerful as ever. Yet something was definitely troubling her.  
Bill didn’t seem to notice.

“All according to plan,” he said answering her question and gestured for them to follow him back to the shack.

“What happened?” Mabel asked not satisfied with Bill’s simple answer. “Are you alright, bro? You look terrible.”

“Thanks, Mabel,” Dipper sneered sarcastically but Mabel didn’t so much as smile.

“I’m ok,” he sighed not knowing where to begin to tell her what had happened.  
It was already becoming difficult to recall the exact order of events. With Bill leading the way out of the forest, he told her about the sudden appearance of the hole and how he had lost the journal. Mabel’s eyes went wide but she didn’t interrupt. She glanced at the book under her arm before giving Dipper a hard look.

He felt embarrassed to admit that he had messed up but he wanted to be honest with his sister. At least with this part of the story. He didn't feel comfortable telling her that he passed out and Bill head to come rescue him.  
That was of course not what had happened but it sure sounded like that when he thought about it.  
Instead he focused on how he stood his ground when face to face with the nightmare - quite literally actually - and enjoyed the look of awe and admiration on Mabel's face.  
He had been scared Bill would corrected his version of the previous events but the demon didn't even seem to listen.

“I didn't know you could be so brave,” Mabel teased, bumping into him playfully. “Normally you can't even watch horror movies without turning on all the lights afterwards.”

“That's not true!” Dipper shot back instantly. “Hey, don't be mean!”

He tried to look angry but the fact that she had just called him brave led to a warm, fuzzy feeling spreading in his chest and he just couldn't be mad at her.

“It was just one light, okay?” He defended himself and Mabel chuckled.

“Yes, your night light” she giggled and Dipper grabbed her by the shoulders making her squeal.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he laughed trying to get a leg in front of her to make her trip.

She avoided him skillfully and shoved at him before Dipper put his arms around her and picked her up, making her yell and kick her legs when they were pulled off the ground. She threw half-formed insults at him that were choked by a burst of laughter and the tension of the last hours lifted off his chest.  
He set her down when he felt exhaustion creep back into his muscles and it took a minute for him to catch his breath.

Mabel’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes teary from laughing. Dipper thought it was much better to see her like this than with that pale, worried expression from earlier. He thought about asking what had troubled her but he didn't want to destroy her good mood and if something really was up they couldn't discuss it in front of Bill anyway so he decided to wait.

As if on cue the forest became less dense and the shape of the Mystery Shack appeared in the distance. Only now did Dipper realize how hungry he was. Apart from rest and maybe a hot shower what he really craved now was some food. They hadn't eaten since breakfast and he was sure the other two felt the same.  
He looked over at Bill who had mostly ignored them and wondered if he experience fatigue and hunger the same way or even more intensely since he wasn't used to it. Mabel followed his gaze and her face became solemn again. She looked at Dipper like she wanted to ask or tell him something but then she changed her mind and her expression became blank again. She gave his arm a reassuring squeeze instead and Dipper knew not to say anything now. They could talk later.

The afternoon sun was still bright and hot when they stepped out of the cool shade of the forest but not as unbearable as before. A light breeze had picked up and was pleasantly cool on their heated skin. Dipper was incredibly happy to be back at the Shack again. It felt like coming home after a long trip.

After they had crossed the meadow he stepped onto the porch, kicked off his shoes and slumped onto the sofa with a content sigh. Mabel followed closely behind but when Dipper gestured her to sit with him she shook her head.

“I think I'll go take a quick shower,” she said picking at her clothes and wrinkling her nose. “And then I'll whip something up in the kitchen, what do you say, bro bro?”

Dipper gave her a grateful smile. “This sounds like the best idea ever.”

Mabel smiled back at him and opened the door. Dipper heard her walking up the steps and then the sound of the shower when she had closed the bathroom door behind her. He stretched his aching legs and yawned loudly

Bill stood in front of the steps leading up to the porch, facing the edge of the forest. Dipper could see he was either staring intensely at one particular tree or very deep in thought.

“Found another nightmare?” He asked from his spot on the couch and saw Bill flinch slightly at his words. “Give me just a minute,” he continued jokingly. “I'm still recovering from the last one.”

Bill slowly shook his head at his remark and shot him an amused glance. He didn't care to explain what he was looking for and Dipper didn’t feel like asking anyway. He had had enough for today and wanted to enjoy some of the nice weather. He had come here to relax after all not for picking fights with supernatural beings.

He must have closed his eyes for a moment because when he looked up again Bill was standing in front of him. He wasn't glaring but his face was serious and his eyes were fixed on his.

“What?” Dipper asked stupidly and wondered if he was now about to be scolded for losing the journal after all.

"You still owe me something," the other said quietly and a shiver ran across Dipper’s arms despite the heat.

"Oh yeah?" he asked trying to sound casual. 

Was this really about the journal? Had he forgotten about something? He was too tired to think.

"You're going to hold up your end of the deal right, Pine Tree?"

His voice was cold but Dipper detected a hint of a grin in it. He sat up in an attempt to keep him from staring down at him so easily. 

"What deal?" he asked getting annoyed. "I don't know what you're talking about." 

He thought about getting up and ignoring him but the demon seemed to have predicted that and stepped even closer blocking the way to the door.

“I'll help you remember,” he said cooly and pushed the other’s shoulder back onto the sofa.

Dipper gasped in surprise and reached for the others hands digging into his bones.  
“Let go!” he hissed and hated how scared he sounded.

He glared up at Bill who had loosened his hold a little but was still pining him down. There was an entertained grin plastered across his face and his eyes held a mischievous glint. He leaned closer and Dipper pressed his head into the back of the sofa unsuccessfully trying to get some distance between them.

“What do you want?” Dipper growled and considered bringing up a knee to where it would hurt the most. But he didn't dare. In the position he was in now it would not be wise to make him angry.  
Bill was still grinning and when he talked his breath ghosted over Dipper’s face making him wince. 

“What you promised me, Pine Tree,” he said and the nickname was barely a whisper against his ear.

Dipper swallowed hard and his brain desperately tried to come up with possible answers. He couldn't remember promising Bill anything but right now he really wasn't in the best condition to do a lot of thinking. For various reasons.  
His hand left Bill’s wrists and moved up his arms as he felt the other’s hair brush against the side of his face. He wasn’t even aware of doing it.

The pressure of Bill’s hand on his shoulders was suddenly gone but before Dipper had the chance to move they were back on his hips holding him down once more. Dipper’s heart was in his throat and he wished he knew what was going on.

“What did I-” he began but his voice broke.

He felt Bill chuckle against his chest more than he heard it and became increasingly more nervous.

“What did I promise you?” he finally managed to ask with a dry throat and shifted slightly when he felt Bill’s hands move across his stomach.

The demon didn't answer. He probably didn’t know either, Dipper decided and wanted to comment on it when suddenly his eyes grew wide and he felt fingers tuck at his waistband.

This was definitely going a little too far for him.

He threw himself forward trying to push the other off only to be met with equal force which held him in place. His breath caught when he heard the sound of his zipper being pulled down and his hand shot down grabbing for Bill’s.  
The demon was quicker. He yanked at his shorts pulling them down a few inches. Dipper trashed his legs trying to make him lose his grip on him but the other simply put his full weight on them making Dipper groan in frustration. Then he caught the hands clawing at his arms and pushed them up to his shoulders pinning them both. Dipper’s muscles ached from the strain and protested with jolts of pain when he tried to move.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snarled and arched his back only to have Bill push against his chest, restricting his breathing.

He felt panic rise and trashed his head. If he could just get his ear or some hair between his teeth maybe it would distract him long enough to push him off. Bill seemed to sense his intentions and pulled his head away staring down at him. His eyes were almost entirely black, his grin weaker but still firmly in place.  
To Dipper’s surprise he let go of his hands and lifted a little of his weight off his chest. Dipper inhaled sharply as the demon's fingers were back on his legs. With a quick motion Bill pulled down his shorts to his knees dodging the feet that aimed for his face.

“The hell?!” Dipper yelped as the demon struggled to pull them off his feet. “You bastard!” he barked and wasn’t sure if he was really mad at him, impressed with his dedication or simply relieved. Bill only laughed.

“I’m just taking what’s mine,” he chuckled and gave Dipper’s legs a playful shove.  
Dipper kicked at him again, still immensely embarrassed. He glared at him who was now holding his short triumphantly in front of him before getting up and entering the shack.

Dipper still couldn’t wrap his head around what had just happened. Bill could have just reminded him of his part of the deal. It would have been a lot easier.  
But it probably wouldn’t have been as much fun for the demon if he had just asked for his shorts, he supposed and huffed.

He heard the shower being turned off and was glad Mabel hadn’t been there to witness any of this. He sighed and rubbed both his hands over his face. It felt hot on his fingers but he could blame that on the sun.  
Now he really needed a shower.


	25. XXV

“Hey bro, you almost look like a person again!” Mabel exclaimed as Dipper entered the kitchen. He rolled his eyes at her but his hands involuntarily went up to his jaw. Instead of familiar stubble he touched clean shaven skin. He had also showered and washed his hair and with a clean T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants he felt completely renewed. Even his tiredness had seemed to waver off since they had gotten back.

Now he was starving and his stomach growled audibly as the smell of fresh hot dogs filled the kitchen. Mabel smiled at his expression.

“I made all of them,” she said sheepishly and Dipper laughed.  
Mabel always cooked too much food when she was hungry.

“That’s ok. I think the three of us can handle them,” he said and Mabel’s smile dropped.

She glanced up at the ceiling, vaguely into the direction where they could hear the shower. Bill was currently in the bathroom even though he had blamed Dipper on using up all the hot water. He followed her gaze then looked back at her quizzically. Mabel swallowed before mustering the courage to talk.

“I think Bill did something to us,” she said quietly and Dipper’s chest tightened. “In the forest,” she continued. “...there was a moment…I don’t know what-...maybe you felt it too… I-...”  
She took a deep breath, calming herself.  
“I felt exhausted...like all my strength had left me.”

Dipper stared at her, mouth dry and heart racing. He saw her worried face, the way she chewed her lips and remembered that he had indeed felt the exact same thing. And not just once.

“I…” Dipper began then had to clear his throat. “I think I know what you mean,” he said, seeing relief before it was quickly being replaced by more concern in his sister’s eyes. He debated telling her that he had even lost consciousness but decided against it. She was worried enough already. And he wasn’t exactly sure what had happened anyway. It was difficult to recall all the details.

“Dipper,” Mabel said, his attention snapping back to her. “I think Bill did that. I think he knows how to drain our energy or something like that.”  
Her eyes darted to the door to not find Bill standing there but it was empty and the shower still running.

Dipper exhaled deeply. He was a little surprised that Mabel’s idea hadn’t caught him off guard. Apparently he had been suspecting it in a corner of his mind but until now never fully allowed it to surface. Now with Mabel speaking it out loud he became scared. He had thought they had some kind of agreement with the demon - if not a full out deal by now - but if his powers were growing to the point where he was able to influence their bodies, how much longer would it take to gain control over their minds?

Dipper jumped when Mabel suddenly reached for the stove, lowering the temperature to keep the water from boiling. It brought him back from his thoughts and he realized he hadn’t said anything yet. He hoped Mabel saw it as a sign of shock about her revelation than the slowly forming feeling of panic in his guts.

“Hm…” Dipper sighed, gathering his thoughts and sorting through possible answers. “I think ...I think he said something about directing energy.”  
He remembered Bill healing Mabel and he swallowed.  
“If he can transfer some of his energy into people...who says he can’t take it as well?”

Mabel’s eyes widened slightly then she turned to fish the first of the hot dogs from the pot, carefully aligning them on a plate. Her stern face told Dipper that she was deep in thought and still upset about everything that had happened in the forest.

“He put the seal on the journals too,” she said suddenly and Dipper was momentarily confused by the apparent change of topic.

“I mean..” she began anew, waving a pair of tongs around. “...Maybe that was the reason we had to hold onto them?” she suggested, her voice laced with excitement and a hint of fear.

Dipper gnawed on his tongue. Bill had been very keen on having the twins hold the journals and placing their hands onto the seals. He wouldn’t do that without a reason.

“He has to touch them,” Dipper suddenly said before he made sense of what he was saying. Mabel gave him a curious look.

“The books .. people ...he- ...he has to physically be in contact with things to transfer energy,” he explained and felt his heart beat rapidly in his chest. He felt like a long missing puzzle piece was slowly falling into place. Mabel didn’t seem convinced.  
“When he touched you,” he continued, his voice becoming louder with eagerness. “He had to- … he told me he has to touch in three different places … He used it to heal my foot.”

There was an unspoken question on Mabel’s face at that but Dipper didn’t let her ask it. His thoughts were chasing one another and he wanted to get them across as quickly as possible, stumbling over his words as he spoke.  
“It’s like a connection .. of some sorts...three places, remember? Like the seals!”  
Mabel’s eyes lit up with understanding.  
“He wanted us to touch the journals with the seals … because… it-...”

“The journals weren’t for fighting the nightmare,” she interrupted, staring at a spot above Dipper’s head.

“They were for draining our energy,” Dipper voiced her thought, tasting blood on his lips.  
Mabel’s mouth moved wordlessly, her face scrunched up to process the new information.

“Why?” she asked after a moment. “Why us? Why does he need our energy?”

Dipper shook his head without breaking eye contact. “I don’t know. Closing the gap? … He said it takes a lot of power to close them after sending back nightmares. It’s another dimension after all.”

Mabel gripped the counter behind her for support, her fingers were trembling.  
“He’s using us,” she said quietly and Dipper felt his throat constrict painfully.

That’s why he hadn’t harmed them until now, he thought. He still needed them for their energy. He felt a weight in his stomach, completely extinguishing the feeling of hunger.  
It explained everything.  
Bill had told him once that he could extract energy from the portals but it was slow and tedious. What kept him from using a source much closer and more convenient instead?  
He remembered the times he had touched him intentionally and the exhaustion he had felt afterwards. He felt stupid for not figuring this out sooner.  
Yes, he had healed both of them with that power but that only enforced his suspicion. He could voluntarily direct the flow of energy and if in one, why not in another direction? Also he couldn’t let Mabel be sick or hurt, he needed her after all.

Dipper’s heart gave a violent twist as the sound of the water suddenly stopped. Mabel’s fearful eyes turned solemn.  
“Don’t worry,” she said in a low voice. “We know something that he doesn’t want us to. We can make this work for us!”

Dipper felt his heart race as he hear Bill’s footsteps on the floor above his head or maybe it was just his imagination.  
“But for now…,” she added, giving him a hard look. “Avoid any contact! Even if he needs to touch us in three places, we better be safe. Please be careful around him, ok?”  
Dipper swallowed. “You too,” he said and Mabel nodded.

The memory of the first nightmare he fought, suddenly found its way into his head.  
He had held his hand.  
What had seemed like a nice gesture for comfort and reassurance, had been a source of much needed energy for Bill. Also when facing the giant hole had he touched his arm to take more of it. That was probably also the reason he had fainted in the forest. His hand was on the seal, wasn’t it? Bill had simply taken too much.  
What if he miscalculated again and next time he wouldn’t wake up at all? What if it was Mabel?

Dipper turned away and sat down at the table to clear his mind of those thoughts. If he looked worried Bill could tell immediately.  
Make it work for us, he repeated in his head, clinging to the words. Mabel was right. Bill didn’t know what they had figured out and as long as he found use for both Mabel and him, wouldn’t hurt them. In the meantime they could make a plan. This calmed him a little and when Bill’s feet echoed from the stairs, his pulse was almost normal again.

Dipper didn’t look up when he entered the kitchen but glanced briefly at him when he slumped into the chair next to him. He wore a clean T-shirt - another one of Dipper’s of course - but had kept the short and Mabel’s socks. It looked ridiculous.  
Dipper pulled his feet underneath his chair and crossed his arms to prevent any accidental contact. He hoped he wasn’t too obvious but Bill didn’t seem to notice. He stretched contently, brushing wet hair out of his eyes and looked expectantly over at the plate piled with sausages.

“Hot showers are the best thing about being human,” he said, then with a quick glance at Dipper added. “Well… second best really.”

Dipper suspected the demon wanted to get a reaction from him but he decided to ignore him. Then Bill grinned and he felt his cheeks grow warm as he turned his face away.

“What’s the best then?” Mabel asked, not showing any sign of the worry and fear she had displayed earlier. Dipper was glad at least one of them was good at acting but he really wished she hadn’t asked that just now.  
Bill wiggled his eyebrows at him before smiling at Mabel and Dipper was about to clamp a hand over his mouth when he remember their promise not to touch him.

“Eating,” he answered and Mabel chuckled.  
She put the plate with the hot dogs in front of him then carried over another one with buns, still warm from the oven. Dipper, glaring at Bill before getting up, helped her with carrying over ketchup and mustard and even put out a bottle of orange juice from the fridge.

Bill watched the growing amount of food on the table with curious fascination and he had already snuck two hot dogs onto his own plate. Though he was polite enough to wait for them to sit down before he started eating. the unusual display of manners elicited a weird feeling in Dipper’s stomach but he couldn't quite place it. He thought about changing chairs and sitting further away from Bill but then the other might get suspicious so he settled on pushing his chair a couple of inches to the side before sitting down again.  
This time Bill cocked his head at the action but didn’t comment on it.He merely shot him a glance before turning his attention back to the food on his plate.

“Alright,” Mabel said, clapping her hands together. “Bon appetite.”  
Dipper gave her a thankful smile before starting to prepare his hot dog. He had made a science out of it and when he was finally about to take the first bite, both Bill and Mabel had already eaten one.

“You’ll stay hungry if you eat so slow, bro-bro,” his sister commented laughing and reached for seconds.

“You’re just missing out on the perfect hot dog,” he stated solemnly, eliciting a scoff from both of them.

“You just add everything,” Mabel snorted with her mouth full and Dipper clutched his chest theatrically as if offended.

“It’s not what you add,” he corrected her. “It’s how you add it.”

“Right,” Mabel mumbled and rolled her eyes but she couldn’t help smiling a little.  
Dipper was happy to be able to cheer her up a little despite everything.  
He began to eat and instead of starting to feel better, he somehow became even hungrier with every bite. He had to make up for lost energy, he was convinced. That also had to be the reason why he slept longer and without any dreams.

He shot Bill an angry look and realized the other was staring at him. There was a hot dog on his plate but it was untouched. Maybe he had eaten too fast and was going to be sick again, Dipper thought and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Can you make one too?” Bill asked and pushed over his plate to him.

Dipper stopped chewing and only looked at him. Was this a trick? He turned to Mabel for advice but she looked as dumbfounded as he had to look.

“Uh…” he started, putting down his hot dog. “...yeah, sure.”

He felt Bill’s eyes on him as he carefully arranged the ingredients but didn’t look up at him. It still made him nervous and he added a bit too much ketchup on accident.  
Bill didn’t mind. He accepted it with a quiet thanks and actually seemed to enjoy it when he started eating it. mabel shot him a hard look but Dipper only shrugged, turning back to his own food.

He couldn’t help but feel a little proud as he watched Bill eat the whole thing. he didn’t even realize he was doing it. Only when Bill had finished and smacked his lips did he notice, he hadn’t even eaten half of his own. He looked away before he caught the demon’s expression and didn’t look at him again for the rest of their meal.

Despite Mabel’s worries they managed to dispose of all of the sausaged. Dipper had caught up and eaten more than the other two and now he felt like bursting. But his mood had changed drastically and he could see even Mabel enjoyed the decrease in tension in the room.  
He offered to do the dished and Mabel accepted gratefully.  
She helped him stack the plates then disappeared into the living room after giving Dipper a last long look that told him to take care.  
When she was gone, Dipper briefly thought about making Bill do the chores but he was feeling too tired to argue with him. Also it would probably end in another awkward deal and he did not need that.

A loud yawn made him jump.  
“Why are you humans always so tired?” Bill complained, letting his head fall onto the back of the chair. “How do you even get stuff done?”

Dipper pulled a face. For stealing their energy, the demon sure used it up rather quickly.  
“Take a nap if you want,” he suggested nonchalantly, hoping to get rid of him for a couple of hours. “The sofa on the porch is very comfortable.”

Bill didn’t reply for a few moments and Dipper stopped expecting an answer as he collected plates and started to fill the sink with soapy water. He began to clean and almost forgot about the demon’s presence in the room.

“Can I sleep in your bed?” Bill suddenly asked and the plate Dipper had been cleaning, slipped from his hands and back into the water with a muffled thud. He instantly turned to tell him no but right then an idea popped into his head.  
If Bill was asleep he could sneak back into Ford’s room and study the books there more closely. He would even be close enough to keep an eye out for the demon without a lot of effort if he was in the room next to him.

“Is the sofa not good enough?” he asked with mock concern in his voice and Bill sneered at him.

“It hurts my back and I can’t stretch my legs… Also it’s terribly scratchy.”

Dipper sighed and turned back to the sink, pretending to think about it.  
“Fine,” he said after a while a lot more annoyed than he had intended. “But only for an hour, ok? I don’t want you up all night.”

“Thanks, Pine Tree,” Bill said, getting up and making his way to the stairs. He shot him a grin before he left and Dipper bit the inside of his cheek. His plan had worked.  
He quickly finished the dishes, putting them on the rack to dry instead of using a towel as usual to have as much time in Ford’s room as possible. There he would definitely find a solution for their demon infestation. Maybe he even kept a book on exorcism.

His heart raced with excitement as he carefully made his way upstairs. He meticulously avoided the steps that creaked when someone stepped on them and crossed the hallway without turning on the lights. It had gotten darker already but the sky was still bright enough to see clearly.  
Walking past the bedroom, he thought about checking on Bill to see if he was really asleep then decided against it. If he wasn’t he would just start to suspect ulterior motives and he couldn’t wait for another chance like that. He tiptoed past the door and only dared to breath again once he had reached the one to his great uncle’s room.

He tentatively turned the knob, feeling the door swing inwards without resistance. The room was darker than the hallway due to the drawn curtains but Dipper didn’t want to turn on the lights just yet. He quickly slipped inside, closed the door silently and breathed a deep sigh of relief when it clicked shut.  
He already saw himself turning page after page, discovering new information on other dimension, maybe even on the mindscape. Then he would think of a plan and Mabel would be thrilled with his discoveries.

Suddenly his shoulders tensed and he was ripped from his little daydream.  
He flicked the switch with cold fingers and would have screamed if his breath hadn’t caught in his throat.

Sitting on the foot of the bed, a book in his lap, grinning widely at him, was Bill.


	26. XXVI

Dipper blinked, hoping he was imagining things but the image before his eyes didn’t change.  
Fear started to fill his stomach like ice water but his heart was surprisingly calm. Bill cocked an eyebrow, maybe expecting a more dramatic reaction but Dipper did his best not to give him the satisfaction.

“Were you reading in the dark?” he asked dryly, casually crossing his arms over his chest.

Bill’s grin faltered for a moment, then quickly returned. “I can do a lot of things, Pine Tree. I’m a demon after all.”

Dipper rolled his eyes, his breathing starting to even out a little. “Maybe you were,” he said. “But right now you’re human.”  
He stepped further into the room, showing Bill that he wasn’t afraid of him.  
“I think you just wanted to scare me.”

Bill gave him a mischievous look. “Did it work?”

Dipper walked over to the bed, but careful to stay out of the demon’s reach, and glared down at him.  
“You almost made me change my pants for the second time today.”

Bill chuckled and for the first time Dipper detected not a hint of spitefulness in it. The demon seemed as surprised about this as him and his face became more serious again. He looked away for a second and when his eyes met Dipper’s again, he was his usual self again.

“Are you looking for something in particular, Pine Tree?” he asked, a challenging smile on his lips.

Dipper felt goose bumps erupt on his arms at the sudden change in atmosphere. He stepped back again and pretended to look around the room. He tried very hard not to let his eagerness to explore the room show. After all, Bill didn’t know it had been locked until recently.

"Yes," he said. "A demon. Yellow, triangular, gets really annoying sometimes. I thought he was sleeping in my room but when I checked he wasn't there."

Bill snickered then grinned at him. "I really was going to though...but then I saw my old buddy's room and got curious."

Dipper scoffed. Yeah, right. A visit for old time's sake sounded exactly like something the demon would do.  
He could try to probe harder but doubted it would lead anywhere. Maybe he had been looking for answers too if the book in his lap was any indication.

"What are you doing here, Pine Tree, hm? Doing your own research?"

“I don’t know,” Dipper answered his question more truthfully than he had intended. He felt Bill’s eyes on him but didn’t look at him directly. “Actually I hoped to find something on the nightmares.”

He internally congratulated himself on his quick thinking. There was no point in lying why he had broken into Ford’s room but he could bend the truth a little on what exactly he wanted to read up on.

“Well then I already picked the perfect book for you,” Bill snickered, holding up the one in his lap.

There was a drawing of a human brain taking up the entire page, its parts carefully outlined and labeled. Despite the writing already fading due to age, Dipper recognized the handwriting of his great uncle. Apparently he had felt the need to add his own thoughts and details to the pictures and paragraphs beneath it.

Dipper’s yearned to just grab the book and rip it from Bill’s hands. It clearly contained valuable information or the demon wouldn't have picked it from all the others in the shelf. Bill locked eyes with him, his fingers curling around the edges of the book, pulling it closer to his chest. He knew exactly what impact his words had on the other and Dipper didn’t miss the amused smile tugging at a corner of his mouth.  
For a brief second, Dipper thought about just shoving him and taking the book by force but then quickly remembered that he could not let Bill touch him again. He couldn't risk a fight so he simply walked over to the shelves, scanning its content for a similarly useful book. There had to be more on other dimension and how to open or close gaps between them. Ford had studied this after all.

If only Bill wasn't breathing down his neck. In the beginning he and Mabel had been watching him, now it felt like the other way round.  
Did he know what they were planning? Was he scared?

Dipper’s eyes trailed over the spines of the books in front of him. There was an entire section dedicated to medieval myths and folklore. They must have come in handy when Ford first started to investigate Gravity Falls but it would not help the twins with their current situation.  
All his knowledge about the portal and dimensions had to be in the journals, but they were gone. Except for the one Mabel had carried, Dipper remembered. There was still hope. He had looked through them so many times already without success but maybe he had missed something.  
He turned to the door to get it but stopped when Bill started talking again.

“Don't you want to know what's in this one?” he asked, pointing to the large book again.

He had turn the page and Dipper could see Ford’s writing all over it. It filled the space between paragraphs and every possible spot across the entire two pages.

“I told him to get this one,” Bill continued, gesturing to the book, an undertone of playful pride in his voice. “But those little comments... I think he added these himself.”

He traced his fingers along the handwriting and tilted his head to read them. Now dipper was even more curious but he also knew that Bill was toying with him as well. If he walked over now to get a glimpse, he was in easy reach of the demon.  
The other clearly felt his eagerness to read some of the handwritten notes but also his hesitation and moved to the side as if to make space for Dipper to sit next to him.

“Want me to read it to you?”

Dipper sneered at him, not moving from his spot. Like hell he would get so close to the demon. Maybe if he showed no interest in it Bill would get bored sooner or later. He could just tell him he had already read it. Then he could sneak in here again at a later time and have the book for himself. The only problem was that they were running out of time and the demon saw right through him, knowing exactly how much he wanted to get his hands on the book.

“Alright,” Dipper suddenly said, surprising both Bill and himself. “Read me something.”

He stared at the other expectantly, chewing his bottom lip. Bill’s smirk became a little cheekier. He pulled up his legs, stretched them across the bed and turned onto his stomach, facing Dipper. He smoothed out the page and propped his head on his hands, elbows resting on either side. After scanning over the writing for a moment, something seemed to catch his eye.

“This one is interesting,” he said, glancing at Dipper to make sure he had his undivided attention. “There’s a part of the brain that gets triggered by fear or surprise. And it reacts much faster than the rest of the cerebral cortex. It decides if the situation is potentially dangerous and takes action before your consciousness even knows what's going on.”

He grinned at Dipper. “Sounds pretty neat. I should try that.”

The brunette shrugged. “It's not as great as it sounds. You can’t turn it off since it's not connected to anything reasonable. Most of the time people jump at sounds or tricks of the eye...it can get really annoying.”

Bill pondered that for a second then turned back to the book. “Want to know what Sixer wrote next to it?”

He grinned at Dipper’s expression. “Of course you do... It says it wakes you from nightmares.” He looked at the other in anticipation. “Does this help you?”

Dipper raised his eyebrows. “Actually...no.“

Bill hummed, tapping his chin in thought. “Well... What exactly do you want to know?”

Dipper shrugged a shoulder, turning back to the shelf again. Maybe they really should focus on the nightmares for now. It was no use trying to get information on the mindscape as long as Bill occupied the room anyway.

“I just want to know what we’re ups against,” he said after taking some time to phrase his thoughts. “How many of the nightmares are there? What do they look like? How can we be prepared for them?”

He held the demon’s gaze, not really expecting an answer but maybe he could get a hint. Bill’s face was blank.

“I don't know.”

Dipper blinked. “What?”

“I don't know how many of them already got out,” Bill said plainly. “I can't tell you what to look like until I actually see them and I have no idea how to prepare for them.”

Dipper’s heart sank. Then there was anger bubbling up in his chest.

“Don't lie!” he snapped. “You are the one who said to have control over them!”  
His hands balled into fists and before he knew it, he had stepped closer, glaring down at the demon once again. “You are the one who claims to be all-knowing and endlessly powerful so why won't you tell me?”

Bill’s face was indifferent and that made Dipper even angrier. He almost forgot about the promise not to touch him as he felt his fingers itch with the urge to grab and shake him. A cocky remark or cheeky grin what's all it would have taken to set him off but the blonde didn't even meet his eyes.

“I know everything about the mindscape,” he said after a moment, his voice low and quiet. “And about the Nightmare Realm... I know about the human mind and how fragile and easy to manipulate it is. I know about all the other dimensions and the way to move between them, about gaps and rifts and the energy that flows through them.”

Dipper looked at him, with wide eyes, holding his breath. Was Bill actually going to tell him something useful? His face looked sincere and Dipper almost believed that for once he was being completely honest with him..

“...But I haven't been to the mindscape in almost a decade...I have no control over the nightmares inside of it and I can hardly contain the ones finding their way here.”  
He sighed, looking up at Dipper, defeat in his eyes.  
“I can't tell you how many got out already or what they look like or what power they have because I don't know.”

He pressed his lips together, waiting for a reply or accusation or an outburst but Dipper could only stare. He had assumed Bill had shown up with a plan, not as the helpless human he was now. If it was true what he had just said, they were in much deeper trouble than he had feared.

“I told you I need to go back to the mindscape,” he continued, even quieter than before. “If I don't, it could mean the end of not only my dimension, but also yours and who knows how many others.”

Dipper still couldn't think of anything to say, he was still processing this new information. He had seen the nightmares first hand and what they could do but he hadn't expected them to be this dangerous. Hadn’t Bill said they weren’t evil per se? Just the representation of people's worries and fears? Was that a lie after all?

“Why are you telling me this?” Dipper asked and he couldn't hide the slight trace of a plea.  
“You've been keeping secrets since the moment you got here! You refuse to share important information with us and you constantly get us in danger! Why should I believe you now?”

Bill’s gaze flitted between him and the book. He shook his head lightly before he took a deep breath to answer.

“Because I thought I could do it myself,” he blurted out, his voice shaking slightly and Dipper’s anger was drained instantly. “I didn't know the nightmares have already taken over the mindscape and I certainly hadn’t expected them to be so powerful in this dimension.”  
He looked away again, staring at something on the floor. “I knew I could use you and Shooting Star to lure them in but I didn't know I would also need your help to banish them.”

He breathed deeply, looking more hurt and vulnerable than Dipper had ever seen him. Not even when he had knocked on their door on the first day, bleeding and in pain. That moment felt like months ago even though it had only been a few days.

“So the only solution to stop the nightmares is getting you back to your dimension,” Dipper repeated, carefully weighing his words. It wasn't a question but Bill gave a slight nod anyway.

“I can only push them back one dimension from here. To send them to the realm I would have to be back in the mindscape.”

Dipper Inhaled, a question burning on his tongue. How will you get back? But he didn't ask it. If Bill already had a plan, he wouldn’t tell him and if he didn't, Dipper wasn't sure he wanted to hear that either.

”Until then,” Bill added, distracting his train of thoughts. “...we need to fight the nightmares from here as best we can.”

“I agree,” Dipper said sternly, making Bill glance up at him for a moment. “So I need to know as much about them as possible.”

The demon blinked lazily, letting his head fall onto the bed. “I already told you everything,” he said annoyed.  
“You are human,” he added quickly before Dipper was able to snap at him again. “You have more experience with them than me.”  
A smile spread on his face when Dipper didn't reply.

“Look...,” he said more patiently. “In the mindscape a nightmare is just an idea, a thought.”  
He thumbed through the books again, stopping at a detailed drawing of a dissected brain. “This part here...,” he explained, pointing to a specific area near the temporal lobe. “...can turn a simple dream, a spark of fantasy, a fleeting thought - even something mundane you experienced during your waking hours - into a bad dream. As soon as a mind susceptible for a nightmare enters the mindscape, through dreaming, these ideas seek them out and latch onto their imagination. Everything beyond that is out of my control. It's the person dreaming that decides what shapes the nightmare takes and how they want to deal with it. If the fear becomes too strong - you remember that part of the brain that makes you jump? - they will wake themselves up, if not, they confront it and deal with it. Either way they learn from the experience and the nightmare retrieves to the realm afterwards.”

He paused for a moment, waiting for Dipper to catch up but the other understood immediately. “So you didn't really deal with the nightmares themselves…,” he summarized. “They just become real through a person's imagination.”  
Bill gave him a humorless but appreciative smile.

“So in our world the nightmares just take the shape of whatever scares us the most. Just like they would do during a dream.” he paused thinking about the one in the woods. It had felt exactly like one of his bad dreams. “But that's also the reason why we can defeat them just by pure will, right? If we show them that we’re not scared, they have no power over us.”

Bill stretched and yawned loudly. “Exactly,” he said and reached for the pillow at the other side of the bed, propping it under his head.

Dipper’s heart had begun to race. He had to tell Mabel immediately what he had found out but he wasn't quite ready to leave just yet. He wanted Bill to keep talking. He wanted to see how much more information he could get out of him.  
“So what about the nightmares we’ve encountered already?” he asked. “What exactly was that thing in the woods and what’s up with the giant hole?”

Bill shrugged half-heartedly and closed the book. “I told you that’s something you should know better,” he drawled into the pillow.

He closed his eyes and Dipper concluded that the conversation was over. He bit his lip to keep himself from asking more questions. Bill would only get angry with him if he did. At least he hadn’t lied when he had told him he was tired. He huffed, then his eyes found the book lying next to him. If he was hoping for answers he would definitely find them there. But with Bill still so close to it he didn’t dare to take it.

Instead he shoved his hands in the pocket of his pants and turned to leave. Before he did he looked over the demon once more with his head on the wrong side of the bed and the bright yellow socks on his feet. At this moment he didn't look at all threatening and Dipper wondered why he had ever been frightened of him.

Also in light of the new information, Dipper had finally gotten a glimpse of what Bill was dealing with at the moment. He had lost control over an entire dimension and with the little power he stole from them, he barely managed to keep things under control.  
For now.

Before Dipper left the room he reached for the light switch then decided to leave it on in case Bill wanted to scare him again. He also left the door open to be extra sure then made his way downstairs to find Mabel. They had a lot to talk about.


	27. XXVII

Dipper opened the door to the living room and for the second time in the last hour his heart skipped a beat. Maybel was sitting on the floor, the upper half of her body draped over the coffee table, her head resting on her arms.  
She was asleep but Dipper had already seen her unconscious that day so he was by her side and shaking her when he realized that he had overreacted. Her eyes fluttered open tiredly but when she saw her brother’s concerned face she jerked awake instantly.

“Dipper? You ok?” she asked, her voice slurred with sleep. She sat up and pulled a face when her muscles and joints protested the uncomfortable position.

Dipper felt his heart calm down again. “Yeah,” he sighed. “I just-... what were you doing?”

Mabel stretched her neck and wiggled her shoulders to loosen their tension. “I must have dozed off.”

Dipper snorted. “I mean before that.”

Mabel gave a quiet laugh then her eyes fell onto the open book on the table and the smile dropped from her face. It was the book about demon and Dipper wondered why she was still reading it. Hadn’t she said it was full of assumptions and mistakes? Ford had so much more interesting books in his room.  
He glanced at the chapter title ‘demonic possession’ and shuddered. As if he hadn’t had enough experience with this particular topic already, he thought and tore his eyes away.

“Why don’t you got to bed?” he suggested and held out a hand to help her up.

Mabel gave the book a long look before closing it carefully. When she looked up again her expression was more than a little worried. She ignored her brother’s hand but her eyes bored intently into his.

“Where’s Bill?”

“Upstair;” Dipper answered and managed to sound as calm and nonchalant as he could.  
Nevertheless, Mabel’s tone sent shivers across his back. “He’s in Ford’s room,” he explained further before she had to find out herself. “I think he’s looking for a way to get back to the mindscape.”

Mabel’s face was solemn and Dipper couldn’t help the feeling of guilt making its way down to his stomach. They should have kept the door locked or at least made it more difficult for Bill to enter the room. Who knew what information he could stumble upon. Also he shouldn’t have let the demon out of his sight in the first place.

“Any success yet?” she asked but knew perfectly well that Bill wouldn’t reveal anything about that.

“I don’t think so,” Dipper answered nonetheless. He remembered the misery in the demon’s voice when he had admitted that he wasn’t powerful enough to fight the nightmares, let alone return to his dimension without their help.  
“Come on,” he said, taking her arm and lifting her to her feet. “I’ll go upstairs with you.”

He led her through the rom and up the stairs. There he walked ahead to make sure Bill wasn’t going to jump at them from behind a corner but the light in Ford’s room was still on and through the crack in the door he could see him lying on the bed exactly the way he had left him.  
He didn’t even move during the time Dipper paced around the hallway, waiting for Mabel to ready herself for bed in the bathroom. He checked on him twice to make sure he wasn’t scheming anything but the only movement he saw was the steady rise and fall of his shoulders.

“”Bro?”

He almost jumped when he heard Mabel’s voice behind him. She had changed into her pyjamas and tied back her hair and for a moment she looked like she was twelve again. Dipper’s chest stung painfully. Mabel shouldn’t be here. She should be on vacation with her friends, having fun and obsessing over a fleeting summer romance, not be stuck with her brother and a monster, being forced to relive her nightmares, the fate of two dimensions resting on her shoulders.

“Are you staying up?”

Her question brought him back from his bitter thoughts. “Just a bit longer,” he replied, forcing a smile. “And I’ll stay upstairs,” he told her when she hesitated to enter the bedroom. “You can leave the door open.”

She gave a short nod then slipped into the room. Dipper watched her snuggle into her blanket and curl up around her pillow and hoped at least in her dreams she would be safe from the nightmares.  
He pulled up a chair to prop open the door then turned to Ford’s room again. Now that he thought about it, he himself hadn’t had a bad dream in a while now if you didn’t count the ones that had become real. He had actually slept quite well during the last days and that was rare. Thanks to Bill he was probably too exhausted to even dream, he decided and made his way along the hallway. He stopped short of the door and looked at Bill. He could already feel the texture of the book in his hands but thinking about dreams had suddenly led his thoughts into a different direction.

Quietly he stepped back again and turned to Stan’s bedroom instead. He turned on the light and walked over to the book shelf. Compared to Ford’s it now looked even messier than before but Dipper immediately found the book he was looking for. He had thought Fors kept all the relevant ones in his room but maybe the others weren’t so useless after all.  
He briefly thought about staying but Mabel trusted him to keep watch over her so he left and went back into Ford’s room, not bothering to be quiet since he didn’t need Bill to be asleep. He could keep his damn book for now. Even slamming the door came into his mind as a revenge for earlier but that could also starle Mabel so he just pushed it close without shutting it completely.

The floor creaked slightly as he walked further into the room, looking for a place to read comfortably. He didn’t feel like sitting at the cluttered desk on that old hardwood chair. Only looking at it made his back hurt. The bed was obviously occupied so he settled for the carpet next to it. Once comfortable with his legs tugged under him and his back against the bedframe he traced the dusty cover with his fingers, quietly mouthing the words.

“The psychology of dreams?” a voice next to his ear repeated and Dipper flinched.  
“Sounds like a real page turner.”

Dipper got a glance of Bill’s face, his eyelids heavy with sleep before he let his head fall back into the pillow. The demon yawned heartily and then gave him a sleepy look. Dipper huffed, deeming it unnecessary to reply and turned to his book again. Although now he found it difficult to concentrate since he knew the demon was watching him.

“You think it can help with the nightmares?”

“I haven’t started reading yet,” Dipper snapped through gritted teeth and Bill chuckled.

“Sorry, I’ll be quiet.” He fluffed up his pillow and sighed contently.

Dipper skimmed through the table of contents one more time because he didn’t seem to retain even a single word he read. “It would be a lot easier if I actually knew what I was looking for,” he said quietly and Bill immediately picked up on the accusing tone.

“I told you already that you know more about this than me,” he said but Dipper still found that hard to believe. “Want me to tell you about brain anatomy, cell receptors, the autonomic nervous system? No problem. You have a question about what people dream about, why they fear things in their head, what causes nightmares? You’re on your own, kid.”  
He said that calmly, without sounding angry or annoyed but rather dissatisfied with himself.

Dipper stared at the page in front of him without reading it. Apparently Bill’s interest in humans and his knowledge about them was only superficial and would not really help him. He managed to focus on the chapter titles again as soon as Bill had settled down once again and turned his back to him. Conversation over, he concluded.  
He had decided to let him stay in the room until he went to bed himself and then shoo him back to the couch in the living room. Bill had had the chance to sleep in a bed - even his own - and let it slip so he could as well sleep downstairs.

He began to read the introduction, a part of a book most people tended to skip but Dipper couldn’t afford to miss a single clue, even if it meant reading this thing front to back. When he had finished the first paragraph, his initial enthusiasm had shrunk considerably. All it had talked about was dreams in general and what meaning they possibly had. He quickly read over the rest without remembering a single word then started on the first chapter. It was titled ‘Why we dream’ and although it was one of Dipper’s burning questions, all it did was make him even more exasperated than he already was.  
The wall of text he read during the course of at least twenty minutes introduced all kinds of theories - some more scientific than others - but at the end general consensus implied that nobody actually knew and Dipper skipped the next chapter ‘How dreams can help us’ out of pure frustration.

The ones he read after that explained some things on brain activity and REM-sleep and even though it was a lot more interesting and enjoyable to read, there was no mention of bad dreams and Dipper stopped reading in the middle of the chapter. He thumbed through the first half of the book, looking at the photos and illustrations and only stopped when something caught his eye. In most cases it turned out to be just as dull and repetitive as the very first chapter.

Soon he felt his eyes getting tired of hastily scanning pages for specific words and phrases. The bad light in the room wasn’t beneficial either. He rubbed his eyelids and stretched his legs. They had been close to falling asleep and Dipper felt a faint tingle as he pulled them out from underneath him. He leaned back against the bed but wasn’t able to find an adequate position anymore.

A smirk formed on his lips when he realized he could simply snatch away Bill’s pillow to lean or sit on. He turned around and his face became serious again when he saw the book the demon was so possessive about poking out from underneath it. Now it was even more difficult to get it without waking him, he thought and sighed audibly. Bill shifted at the sound but didn’t wake and Dipper sat back at the carpet miserable. Was he really trying to hide something from him? Or was he just trying to get Dipper curious about it?  
He was simply playing games again, Dipper concluded and established to ignore the book for the time being and focus on his own. He almost groaned when his eyes fell on the title of the next chapter - ‘dream interpretation’ - but he forced himself to keep going. He read through another mind numbingly boring paragraph of ‘visual representation’ and ‘the importance of keeping a dream diary’ before his leg decided to give him a little excitement and cramped painfully.

Dipper hissed and sprang to his feet, shaking and rubbing the sore muscle in his calf. Maybe he should really sit somewhere more appropriate. He looked over at the bed again and the space Bill had created when he had turned around but quickly pushed the idea from his mind. he didn’t care about waking Bill if he moved the mattress but the close proximity of the other was definitely too dangerous even if he was asleep. He couldn’t risk losing any more of his energy, he had already wasted enough reading that stupid book.

Despite his aching leg he sat down at the floor once more but turned his upper body towards the bed and placed the book on it. That way he didn’t need to hold the thing and his backside was grateful for getting some of his weight lifted off.  
When he put his head in the crook of his arm he found it even more comfortable and the prospect of having to read through the rest of the book didn’t seem so bad anymore.

He didn’t realize he was yawning until his eyes watered and momentarily obscured his vision. He shook his head to focus again and found he had reached a section about ‘lucid dreaming’. It didn’t explain why or how it happened but briefly mentioned how a person could achieve it. Dipper stopped reading to think about that. Moving freely in the mindscape could be a huge opportunity. Bill could fight the nightmares like this.  
He thought about rousing Bill and telling him about his findings but then he saw the words ‘dangers of lucid dreaming’ and his attention was brought back instantly. Apparently forcing yourself into lucidity could result in entering sleep paralysis, a state between waking and dreaming where voluntary muscle contractions were inhibited due to the brain believing it was asleep. It did this to prevent any uncontrolled movement that could potentially hurt the dreamer. Unfortunately, in combination with a vivid imagination, that often led to nightmare-like hallucinations.

Dipper’s heart skipped at the word ‘nightmare’ and he eagerly turned the page to finally read what he had been looking for, only to be extraordinarily disappointed. There were only a couple of sentences describing the origin of the term and that it was nothing more than a regular dream with a frightening content. If only, Dipper thought and was about to slam the book shut when he noticed a short list in the corner of the page. It was labelled ‘most common nightmares’ and Dipper’s breath caught when he read it.

This was all he had needed. Memories of his encounters with them flooded his brain and he marveled at the speed of which new connections were created. For once, something started to make sense.

First on the list was ‘being chased by someone/ something’ and immediately the fog in the forest came to his mind. He recalled the fear he had felt and how difficult it had been to keep from running and to turn around and face it. The second one read ‘falling from a great height’ and he could have slapped himself for not seeing it sooner. The feeling he had gotten when he had gone close to the hole that day was exactly the one he often woke up from, panting and with a racing heart. It wasn’t particularly terrifying once you were awake again but during those short moments, seeing the ground coming closer, it was one of the worst experiences. Mabel had often told him that she suffered from these nightmares regularly so that explained why she had been an easier target for it n the real world. Dipper admired her for how much courage she must have mustered to step across the edge of that hole.

He quickly skipped to the next item on the list and felt his mouth go dry. ‘being trapped’ it said. He tried to think whether one of the first two nightmares had evoked a feeling similar to this but couldn’t recall any. Was this one yet to come?  
He tried to imagine the fear he would feel while being unable to move, to run, to be held down and helpless while he knew something was coming for him. It sounded like a nightmare but he failed to imagine what form it would take. While the first one didn’t have a clear shape either, its concept was unmistakeable and the second one was even more obvious. Now that he knew what it represented.

He read the next line and although it didn’t come as a surprise he couldn’t help his insides acting up at the words. ‘Physical harm / dying’.  
He didn’t even want to start thinking about what shapes this one could take but his brain had already begun flooding him with horrifying images of his own demise. While the other three nightmares also implied the threat of death, he was sure they couldn’t really harm him. But this one? He hoped he wouldn’t have to find out where the limits to their powers lied.

He looked at the last entry and even though he was still concerned about the one he had just read, it knocked the breath from his lungs with a loud gasp. He glanced at Bill to make sure he hadn’t woken him but then again, he wished he had someone to share that new information with. He read over it again but the words didn’t change.

‘Hurt or death of loved ones’.

Dipper breathed deeply to push down the dread forming like a ball of ice in his stomach. He closed his eyes, trying to keep his mind from creating those terrible scenarios in his head but all he could see was Mabel’s lifeless face. He balled his hands into fists to stop their shaking and buried his face in the blanket. He thought about getting up and checking on Mabel just to see her safe but if she woke up he wouldn’t be a good enough liar to tell her everything was fine.

He told himself not to worry. These nightmares were only thoughts. They knew how to counter them and with Bill’s seals they could easily send them back. That calmed him a little but his heart was still beating rapidly in his throat. If only he could talk to someone. Even if it was just a distraction.  
His eyes fell on Bill when he looked up again and his hand was already reaching for his shoulder when he remembered that touching him may not be a very good idea. He knew he was able to get at their energy by touching them but wasn’t certain if it worked the other way round. Probably not when he was asleep, Dipper hoped and his fingers met the fabric of the demon’s shirt.

For a fearful moment he waited for something to happen but he didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Only the other’s body heat and slight movement of his chest when he breathed. He watched him silently for a minute as he just slept peacefully and found it strangely comforting.  
Suddenly he didn’t feel like waking him anymore. He wouldn’t know what to say anyway without sounding scared and pathetic.

As the effects of the adrenaline started to ebb, the burn in his eyes and pain in his back slowly returned, reminding him that he too should get some rest. He decided to get up and let Bill sleep here for tonight when he noticed his hand still hadn’t left the other’s shoulder.

Out of curiosity he lightly traced the outline of his shoulder blade and spine up to the back of his neck and was surprised how warm the skin there was. It was probably just regular temperature but up until now Dipper had not considered Bill a real human. Sure, he looked and acted like one but unconsciously he had expected him to feel cold and aloof like the demon he was.

The tip of his fingers lightly grazed soft hair and the urge to run his hand through it erupted in his chest. His thumb ran over the side of his neck and he could faintly sense Bill’s steady pulse. It was fascinating, almost hypnotizing, getting to see him so vulnerable.  
Dipper’s fingers followed one of the muscles there to his jaw while strands of soft hair brushed against the palm of his hand. He relished in the sensation when all of a sudden some suppressed part of his brain kicked in, making him realize  
what the fuck he was doing?!

He jerked his hand away and pushed himself back from the bed, catching the breath he had been holding. All of a sudden the room was too small, the air too hot. He scrambled to his feet, his knees giving out more than once and he nearly leapt for the door, reminding himself in the last moment to not slam it shut as soon as he was through.  
He waited for his vision to adjust in the dark hallway, chest heaving and his pulse creating colorful patterns on his retinas while he desperately tried to make sense of everything that was happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All books appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real books is purely coincidental.


	28. XXVIII

The darkness that pressed against the window pane was almost complete, safe for the few stars and the dull crescent of the moon which were too faint to relief it. The sound of nocturnal animals was scarce and as such sounding eery and out of place. Small droplets of water fell in the distance but Dipper saw no rain when he leaned his forehead against the cool glass and stared at the dark gray clouds that traveled lazily across the night sky.  
A cup of water was in his hands and he sipped it occasionally just so he had something to do. His thoughts were a tangled mess but had settled down far enough to blame everything that had happened in the last five minutes on stress, exhaustion and the constant threat of the nightmares. Now that he knew what the next one could be, he already started feeling uncomfortable in the small space of the kitchen. He shook his head and shoulders trying to rid himself of the sensation.

After gulping down more water he poured the rest into the sink, set the glass on the counter and made his way upstairs again. He had left the lamps off to not wake Mabel but when he reached the landing he saw a narrow beam of light illuminating the hallway before him. It was coming from the bathroom and judging by the open door to Ford’s room, Dipper had only one suspect in mind. His fingers turned cold thinking about having to face Bill so soon again but he wouldn’t want to give him the opportunity to scare him again.

Heading back into his great uncle’s room, he was careful not to make any sound as he passed the bathroom door. He thought about risking a glance but his curiosity about the book was stronger and so he quickly grabbed it from underneath the pillow, his heart jumping with excitement as his fingers closed around the worn cover.

Just as he was pulling it towards him, the door to the bathroom opened, sending a rectangular patch of light against the opposite wall before the switch was flicked and the hallway was dark once more. Now Dipper had nowhere to go. He wondered how Bill would react to seeing him hold the book.  
There wasn’t much time to ponder the different scenarios that began to form in his head because just that moment the demon appeared in the door, blinking against the light and giving Dipper an unimpressed look. If he was mad at him for taking the book, he didn’t show it.

“Can’t sleep?” Dipper asked, trying hard to sound and act casual despite the weight in his guts. His breath caught as the blonde let the door fall shut behind him, blocking his only way of escape. His eyes snapped back to Bill who - to his relief - didn’t seem to care what he had been doing. If anything he looked rather tired and disoriented.

“I was actually,” he said stifling a yawn. “But then you woke me up so I went to brush my teeth.”

His tone was equal parts explanation and accusation, barely hiding the tinge of amusement and Dipper wished he could just sink through the floor right then.  
But there was no way Bill had felt that, right? He would never have tolerated that if he hadn’t been fast asleep, Dipper was convinced. It was more likely that he had just heard him leave the room even though he had tried to be as quiet as possible.

“You’re a very light sleeper then,” he managed awkwardly, avoiding the demon’s gaze.

Bill sighed. “You have no idea,” he said, sounding annoyed but Dipper felt it was not directed at him. “The sheets are itchy, the pillow’s suffocating, the room is way too hot and how can anyone sleep with this stupid meatsack moving so much?!”

Dipper looked up, a little confused at the rant. To him Bill had seemed quite content and he hadn’t moved at all. Except if he counted breathing. Or having a beating heart. Or these random muscle twitches in the legs at times. How weird all that had to be if you were new to all this, he thought and couldn’t help feeling a tiny bit sorry for the demon.

“You’ll get used to it,” he told him, still desperately looking for a way to change the subject and not thinking about how much the other had definitely not been asleep earlier.  
He tried to swallow his embarrassment. After all, there was nothing he had to be ashamed of, he told himself. Bill would have done the same if his hair would have been half as nice. Goddammit. This was not where he wanted his thoughts to go.

Swallowing he brought his attention back to the book in his lap, opening it to the first page. There was Ford’s name in his unmistakable handwriting, claiming it as his property. Just like the journals, Dipper thought and he felt his hopes rising. The answer to their problem could be in here. Was that why Bill had tried to keep it from him?  
He had barely finished the thought and was about to turn the page when with a faint click the light went out. He exhaled audibly, caught between sighing and groaning.  
the sudden darkness blinded him and strained his ears to locate Bill as he moved in the darkness. For several breaths Dipper feared he had walked into some kind of trap with the book as bait and now had to suffer the consequences of his curiosity.

However, Bill acted as if he wasn’t even in the room with him. He heard him walking over to the window and pulling the curtains aside, alleviating the darkness the slightest bit. He opened it and Dipper could faintly make out the silhouette of his upper body against the night sky, a cool breeze tugging at his hair and shirt.

“I was trying to read,” Dipper said quietly. In the silence of the room it sounded way too loud.

“And I was trying to sleep,” Bill shot back instantaneously but not in any way angry. It had the designated effect and Dipper was glad the other wasn’t able to see his flushed face.  
He put the book aside onto the nightstand, wanting nothing more than to leave and not have this conversation. He could tell Bill was enjoying making him feel that way. He wondered if there was a chance he would ever let him live it down.

He rubbed a hand over his eyes and made to slide off the bed when Bill turned away from the window and came towards him. There was no malicious intent in his movements but Dipper tensed anyway ready to jump at the slightest indication of hostility.

“Relax,” Bill murmured, shaking his head at his paranoia. The mattress shifted under his weight as he climbed under the covers and curled up on his previous spot at the foot of the bed. He plumped up the pillow and sighed contently as he laid his head on it.  
Dipper took that as a sign to leave. He got to his feet, picking up the book in the process and took a step towards the door when something outside the open window caught his eye.

It was probably just the shadow of a cloud moving across the treetops or maybe an owl or bat but it made Dipper freeze with fear. He wasn’t ready to handle another nightmare today. His eyes were fixed onto the small rectangular view of the woods and sky as they remained as unmoved and peaceful as before.  
A long moment passed before he let himself breathe a sigh of relief but a bit of unease returned when he heard Bill shift under the covers behind him.

“Pine Tree?” he asked and there seemed to be genuine concern in his voice. “Are you losing it?”

Dipper didn’t laugh. It was too close to the truth. His body couldn’t cope with that constant stress much longer.  
“It’s just nerves,” he replied and pried his gaze away from the gloomy scenery outside and whatever might be lurking in its shadows. How preposterous it was to just go to sleep when there was still such great danger out there.

“You know your fear attracts nightmares, right?”  
Bill’s grin was obvious even in the dark. He quickly became solemn, though.  
“Just calm down for a second, ok? Get some rest and we’ll keep fighting tomorrow, alright?”

Dipper’s eyes returned to the sky and he unconsciously looked for the constellation matching his birth mark. It should be visible at that time of the year but he couldn’t find it between the patches of clouds, maybe the window was facing the wrong part of the sky.

“Don’t worry,” Bill began once more. “There’s nothing out there.”

Dipper turned to him and even though he could only guess where his face was and knew that Bill perceived just as much as him in the darkness, raised an eyebrow at him.  
“Are you lying to make me feel better?”

Bill chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe me either way.”

Dipper wanted to ask if he had been serious or not but wasn’t sure if he was ready for the answer so he kept his mouth shut. A rather cool gust of air made him shiver and he reached for the window to close it.

“Don’t,” Bill said and he stopped. “Leave it open.”

Dipper hesitated. He didn’t feel at all comfortable knowing there was a potential entry but if a nightmare really wanted to come in, there was no stopping it anyway. Somehow he also remembered the paragraph in the dream book about being trapped so the decision to leave at least a small option for escape came a little easier and he let his hand fall to his side again.

“It was getting cold,” he said quietly, looking for an excuse, even though there was no reason to hide that he was scared.

“Come here then,” Bill offered and held up a corner of his blanket.

Dipper scoffed, unsure how to react. Was that a trick? Or did Bill just want some company? He was still careful not to come in contact with the other, at least not while he was awake but he seemed to be in a good mood so he risked stepping closer. After making sure nothing else moved outside, he walked over to the bed and sat down onto to mattress but no attempt at reaching for the cover Bill held out to him. After a while he dropped it but otherwise didn’t move. Dipper knew if there had been enough light in the room to see his face it would be just as expressionless as always. He wondered if it was even possible for Bill to look disappointed, hurt or even sad instead of indifferent or simply angry.

Tucking his legs under him he looked over at the dark shape of his body. He feverishly searched for the right way to start a conversation to lift the slowly building tension but Bill pulled him from his thoughts by doing it for him.

“Found anything in that book of yours?” he asked, bracing himself on his elbows.

Dipper carefully laid out his words. He really wanted to talk about what he had found out but he didn’t want to give up his advantage. On the other hand, who knew Bill didn’t know that already. He was a dream demon after all and nightmares were his speciality.  
“Mostly useless stuff,” Dipper answered truthfully and although he could feel Bill waiting for more he had decided not to tell him. He had to warn Mabel, though, he reminded himself. She had to know what they possibly had to watch out for. But she deserved to rest and tomorrow morning was hopefully early enough. Also he was sure Bill needed them for now and wouldn’t let them get attacked in their sleep.

He realized he was still staring at the other in the darkness and wondered how he could be so relaxed to even think about sleeping. Maybe there really was nothing to fear. At least for tonight.  
The notion calmed him a little and he allowed himself to lie back onto the bed, his eyes looking for shapes on the starlit ceiling. He stifled a yawn, his body aching with exhaustion as he relished the soft mattress on his back.  
Bill turned under the covers and he was surprised when that didn’t bother him. Even in close proximity of the demon he found himself more or less relaxed for the first time in days. Since Bill had shown up he had been constantly wary of him. Being in the same room with him had stressed him out as much as when he wasn’t and he didn’t know where exactly he was and what he was doing. He had watched his every move, too scared to let his guard down and now he just couldn’t keep that up any longer. Bill had done nothing to hurt him or Mabel, even though he had had every opportunity. If anything he had even helped them with the nightmares. He also had to trust them if he was comfortable enough to let himself fall asleep next to him so readily.

Dipper closed his eyes, confident that he would know immediately if Bill’s disposition would suddenly change. If only his body wasn’t so persistent in demanding sleep. He wondered how the demon experienced that. As a human he had to sleep too eventually even if he found it difficult, as he had explained. A question popped up in his mind and before his tired brain could decide whether to ask it or not it was already out.

“Do you dream?”

Bill was quiet for quite some time and Dipper was becoming convinced that he had fallen asleep after all but then he felt him move again and when he talked his voice was closer than before.

“I don’t even get to sleep, Pine Tree,” he replied, his voice low but carrying a smile.

“Nevermind,” Dipper groaned, rubbing a hand over his face, muffling his words. He didn’t know why had even wanted to know that in the first place.

Bill sighed into the pillow but answered nonetheless.  
“No,” he said. “I don’t need to. I’m not human, remember?”

Dipper stretched his arms over his head. Was he too tired or did his answer really not make much sense?  
“But you’re in a human body. You eat, you sleep….”  
He paused for a moment to think. It was getting difficult to keep his thoughts from straying. Opening his eyes, he tried to focus but it was too dark and his eyes found nothing to hold his attention.  
“Isn’t your brain human too, then? If only your mind is a demon’s, where is that?”

Bill laughed softly. “Answering that would go way over your head now, Pine Tree, believe me.”

Dipper scoffed but he found no reason to disagree with him.  
“So how much of you is human then?” he thought out loud and winced when Bill snickered.

“Wanna find out?”

Dipper was fully awake again.  
“Shut up,” he growled and felt his chest constrict with embarrassment. That was definitely not how he had meant it. He turned his face away despite knowing the other couldn’t see his frown and tried to keep his breathing steady.  
Bill was still laughing so he lashed out in the general direction of his voice but only hit the edge of his pillow and only slightly brushed his shoulder. The other fell quiet but Dipper could almost feel his smirk.

“There’s more to a human than just basic physiological functions,” he continued even though Dipper hadn’t expected him to give a sincere answer. “How else would you explain conscience, personality, morals? It’s all in the mind and, put simply, it’s not necessarily where the brain is.”

Dipper turned to him again, mesmerized by his words. “That’s some deep stuff,” he said and felt Bill’s shoulders move under his hand when he chuckled. There was a reason it shouldn’t be there, he thought, but he was unable to remember what it was.

“So dreams need a mind,” he recapped, more to himself but it helped speaking it out loud. He hadn’t realized he had closed his eyes again. When was the last time he had had a dream? Not a nightmare but a regular, nice dream?  
Why was it so hard to think? He should really get up and go to bed and not waste his time trying to get something meaningful out of Bill.

“If you possess someone’s mind you also have control over their body,” he continued despite the increasing effort of keeping a coherent thought. “But if the body dies, the mind does too, right?”

He took Bill’s silence for agreement but he had forgotten where he was going with that question.

“Are you looking for a way to get rid of me?” the demon asked, sounding amused.

“What? No…,” Dipper retaliated but realized that was exactly what he had been doing.

“Don’t break your head over this, kid,” Bill added. “You can’t make me leave this body without completely destroying it and besides…,” he shifted and when he talked his breath ghosted over Dipper’s skin. “...you need me to send the nightmares back to the realm, don’t forget that.”

He didn’t sound angry but there was something in his voice that Dipper hadn’t sensed before. Worry? Fear? It was true, what he had said though and he could think about exorcism when they had defeated their most imminent threat. Until then he just had to accept his presence but as long as he was on their side of the battle he should concentrate on the nightmares.  
Still, the book on the nightstand wouldn’t leave his thoughts. It was filled with information he hadn’t even known existed and he could barely wait to read it. But right now, he felt himself slipping into sleep more and more with every passing minute.  
There were still questions he wanted to ask, things he needed explained but all of this was mushed together into a senseless puddle of words and pictures in his head and he began to understand why sleep deprivation eventually led to hallucinations.  
He sensed movement again and all of a sudden he was covered in warmth.

It took a long second before he processed that Bill had pulled the blanket over him. Now the idea of staying wasn’t such a terrible one any more. They had already slept in the same bed and he was still alive, he thought.  
Also when had the demon become so warm, he wondered, his thoughts derailing. Last time he had barely been room temperature and now he was practically radiating heat. Dipper had a hard time not leaning closer and stealing more of it.  
Was he really going to sleep here? He should get up. He hadn’t even brushed his teeth yet.

That triggered a thought in his half-asleep brain and he leaned into the pillow next to him.  
“Bill?”

The other hummed in question.

“Whose toothbrush did you use?”

The demon giggled menacingly. “Yours.”

“What?” Dipper yelped but it came across more like a whimper.

“Now that I’m stuck in this meat sack, I have to take care of it obviously.”

“Are you serious?!” Dipper growled and in his current state that was the worst that could have happened to him. He shifted to push himself up and complain more thoroughly when something touched the side of his head, stopping him.  
He expected pain but all he felt was Bill’s warm hand.

“I’m not,” the demon said, curling his fingers behind his ear. “Shooting Star gave me one.” He gently tugged at his hair as he brushed over the back of his neck. “At least someone’s looking out for me after everything I’ve done for you.”

Dipper couldn’t answer. Was Bill mocking him by copying what he had done earlier? He laid there motionless, holding his breath and waiting for whatever revenge the other had planned for him.  
Yet nothing happened and he began to relax a little. Taking a deep breath as quietly as possible, he gathered his courage.

“You make it sound like I’m not treating you nicely,” he whispered, startled by his own boldness.

Bill’s fingers stopped moving and he snorted. “You’re not”, he breathed.

Dipper leaned into the touch a little before Bill pulled back his hand even though he wasn’t fully aware of doing it.  
He fell asleep, huddled into the blanket and Bill’s body heat and as he remembered Mabel’s warning not to let the other get too close, wondered how terribly he had already messed up.


	29. XXIX

Dipper didn’t need to open his eyes to know he was not in his bed.  
It felt too different than what he had become used to. Yet it was not entire uncomfortable. He could tell that he had once again slept longer than intended but he was glad to have gotten some actual rest this time.  
Shifting slightly he cracked open an eye and blinked against the dim morning light filtering through a thick layer of clouds from a misty sky.

There was a mop of light hair on the pillow next to him, the rest of Bill’s body curled up under the covers and he began to vaguely remember the evening that had preceded their current situation as he realized he hadn’t woken by himself.

Something was wrong.

Despite being unable to detect the source his lungs forced a large gulp of air into them and his pulse quickened. He pushed himself up onto his arms, trying to shake off the dream he could barely recall. Then a wave of ice cold dread hit him as a sickening certainty that it hadn’t been a dream at all seeped into him.

He kicked at the comforter, freeing his legs, not caring if he woke the one next to him, leapt from the bed and dashed out of the room.  
When he was halfway across the hallway he heard Mabel shout for him again and he didn’t have to check their bedroom to know that it was empty.

“Dipper!”

It was coming from the foot of the stairs and he almost tripped when he struggled to run even faster. He expected her injured, bleeding, in the claws of some unimaginable monster but when he grabbed for the handrail to stop his sprint and looked down he saw nothing out of the ordinary.  
Mabel, still wearing her pajamas stared up at him, relief spreading over her face the instant she saw him. Dipper couldn’t help but look her over for any sign of her being hurt nonetheless.

“What happened?” he asked, voice raw, his fingers clenching around the wood. His heart and stomach were still doing flips in his chest, the muscles in his legs burning with adrenaline. His first thought was Bill but he had just been with him. The second one was ‘nightmare’ and his breathing stopped.

He had initially blamed it on the bad weather and the time of day but now that he looked more closely, the ground floor of the shack seemed unusually dark. As if someone had drawn all the curtains. He could see Mabel clearly as she slowly made her way upstairs but the bottom steps and the floor beyond were drowned in shadows.

“Where were you?” she asked, slightly out of breath when she reached him.

Dipper was taken aback by the question. He had come as quickly as possible, The realization that she probably meant why he obviously hadn’t slept in his bed last night slowly sank into him and he began to stammer an answer.

“I… I was in ...great uncle Ford’s room,” he explained, dropping his gaze for a short moment.

Mabel quirked an eyebrow at him but didn’t enquire further. Her eyes briefly flitted to the door at the end of the hallway though, and Dipper was glad he couldn’t spot any sign of Bill there.  
He really shouldn’t be having secrets from his twin but he just didn’t feel comfortable admitting how quickly he had broken his promise not to touch the demon. Or vise versa. He felt heat sneak into his cheeks and turned away so Mabel wouldn’t see.  
But she wasn’t paying attention.  
As soon as she had reached the landing she sat down on the floor and began rubbing her bare feet and ankles. Dipper’s heart jumped into his throat and he immediately forgot all about his embarrassment.

“Are you hurt? I’m so sorry I didn’t notice - …”

“No, it’s ok,” Mabel interrupted him, pulling her hands away to show her unmarked skin. “I’m just cold.”

Dipper scoffed. “Of course they are when you’re running around without any socks.”  
Even Bill wears some, he wanted to add but thought it best not to bring the other into the conversation right now.

“I went to look for you, bro,” she said accusingly as if her being cold was suddenly Dipper’s fault and got to her feet. “Did you even sleep or stayed up all night reading again?”

Dipper sighed. If this was the worst she could imagine, that was fine.  
“I found something about the nightmares.”

Mabel’s scowl turned into surprise and the excitement, her eyes large.  
“Really? What? Where?”

Dipper snickered.  
“In one of Grunkle Stan’s crappy old books. I don’t know how accurate it is but it sure gives us something to work with.”  
He glanced behind him and lowered his voice. “I’d rather not talk about it here, ok?”

Mabel gave an understanding nod.  
“I need to show you something too. I don’t know if it helps with the nightmares but-...” She swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around herself. “Later,” she concluded.

She was about to head for the bedroom when a strange sound caught the twin’s attention.  
At first it sounded like rain on a roof then it slowly turned into the splatter of large drops on wood before it became the gushing of a broken pipe.

“Oh shit,” Dipper breathed.  
He peered down and saw a glistening layer of liquid spreading on the floor below, tiny waves rippling across the surface as its edges hit the first step. Due to the darkness it looked almost black. Dipper took a step forward, mesmerized by the movement of the ripples when he noticed Mabel beside him.  
She cursed under her breath and before he could say or ask anything he saw her sprinting down the stairs..

“Mabel!”  
He grabbed for her but she was already out of his reach.

“My book!” she yelled back over her shoulder and stepped into the water without hesitation.  
It splashed and lapped at her feet, the fine waves disturbed for only a moment. Dipper didn’t know what she was talking about but he sure as hell wouldn’t let her go alone.  
He was almost at the last step, ready to jump in after her as she made her way to the living room when all of a sudden a hand closed over his arm.  
It was already too familiar to startle him and he tried to rid himself of it before he even turned around.

“Let go!” he snapped but Bill only held on tighter.

He felt a biting cold on his feet and looked down at them. The water had risen and was now at the second step where he was standing. The fabric of his socks and pants soaked up the water and he shivered. If it kept going like this it would soon be over Mabel’s knees and maybe then she couldn’t come back as easily any more. He had to go after her now.  
By now she had vanished into the darkness and the sound of running and splashing water seemed to echo around the rooms, making it impossible for him to pinpoint her exact location.

The water now engulfed Dipper’s ankles and he almost slipped as he tried to free himself from Bill’s grasp once again. He hadn’t even noticed him coming after him. Turning around, a spiteful remark on his lips, he was ready to drag him down with him if he didn’t release him immediately. The face he saw choked the words in his throat.  
Bill’s eyes were wide, his mouth a thin line.

“Don’t you see?” he snapped, his fingers digging deeper into his flesh. “It’s a nightmare!”

Dipper jumped back as if the water was suddenly boiling and clutched the handrail with shaking fingers.

“It’s in the shack,” he whispered more to himself and stumbled back against the wall as his knees gave out. “Shit, shit, shit.”

He looked at Bill for an explanation or help but was met with the same expression he was sure the other now saw on his face. Panic rose in his chest and he whirled around, his eyes frantically searching the blackness below for any sign of his sister.  
There was movement and he was about to shout a warning when he saw her wading towards them. Except for her drenched pajamas she looked unharmed. Dipper sighed with relief.  
He held out a hand to help her out of the water which almost reached the middle of her thighs and she took it eagerly, her fingers as cold as the water.

“Stop doing that,” he reprimanded her but his voice was lacking the anger he was feeling. He yanked her up maybe a little too forceful but he just wanted her away from the water no matter if it was a nightmare or not. He ushered her up the stairs and only let go of her when he was sure she was a good distance away from the sloshing surface.

“Did you hear what Bill said?” he scolded her, searching her face. “It could be a nightmare!”

Mabel looked at him for a long moment and Dipper was prepared for shock, fear or realization how dangerous her actions had been.  
Anything but the raised eyebrows and half-smile he received instead.

“A nightmare?” she repeated and huffed. “Bro, I think you’ve become even more paranoid than before. I didn’t think that was possible.”

Dipper stared at her mouth gaping. Was he overreacting? Was it really just a broken pipe? He didn’t know what to believe. A headache began to form around his temples, making it difficult to keep his thoughts coherent. He wanted to say something but he found himself incapable.

Mabel rolled her eyes at him.”If that was a nightmare how come I’m all wet?” she asked and tugged at her soaked pajama pants clinging to her legs.  
So the water was real alright.  
He turned around to Bill to tell him they didn’t have to be worried when he found himself face to face with him.

“Pine Tree, what are you doing?”  
The demon had both his shoulders in a firm grip and Dipper could see how much effort it took him not to shake him with equal force. There was rage but also confusion in his eyes.

“What?!” Dipper snarled in reply. “You heard her! It’s not a -.”

Bill stared at him, a condescending smile on his lips.

Dipper felt like slapping him. But at the same time a flicker of doubt erupted in his mind. He turned his head back to Mabel but only found the empty hallway. His stomach twisted and this time Bill did shake him.

“Come here, I’ll prove it.”

His sister’s voice was coming from the stairs. She must have run off again. But hadn’t she been next to him just a second ago.  
He moved forward again but had almost forgotten about Bill who was still holding him in place. Pulling free forcefully he managed a few steps towards the landing and his heart nearly stopped.

The water was still rising steadily and it would only be a few more minutes before it reached the second floor. What was even worse was the sight of Mabel.  
She had stepped into the black waves once more but now it washed around her shoulders, her face ghostly white above the surface, her hair floating around her like seaweed.  
The thought sparked another in Dipper’s head but was gone too quickly.

A small white hand reached out to him from among the rippled and he already saw him take it when his own hand was slapped away.

“The fuck is your problem?” he snarled at Bill who was again clinging to him.

“You have to get out,” he growled stubbornly and began pulling on his shirt. Dipper raised a fist to inflict some well deserved pain but his movements seemed sluggish and out of place and when he tried to turn he saw his legs emerged in water up to his knees.  
He couldn’t remember when he had walked down the stairs. Something large and heavy rose in his throat and he had trouble breathing.

“Come on, bro,” he heard Mabel urge him, her voice coming from a distance already.   
He had to go after her before it was too late.

“It will be if you don’t snap out of it, Pine Tree!” Bill groaned and dug his nails into the skin of his arm.

The water clawed with icy hands up his legs and tore at his clothes but Dipper barely felt it. He heard his sister call for him again and that was enough. He stepped down another step and shoved Bill, successfully freeing him. The last thing he saw before the water rushed at him was the demon’s perplexed face and he almost laughed out loud at his expression.

He wanted to shout something back, to make fun of him but suddenly there was water in his mouth. He coughed and spit but more and more forced its way into him. Panicking he looked around but the room was too dark to see anything anymore.  
But Mabel had to be here somewhere. He lunged forward, his hands reaching around desperately searching for something to hold onto. His legs lost hold and he clawed at the water to keep his head above the surface. He barely made it but when he wanted to stand up again he found the floor had vanished. Or the water had risen again. Either way now he had to kick and move his arms to stay afloat. His clothes threatened to drag him down and now there was water in his eyes, his ears and his throat choking him.  
By now he was completely disoriented and absolutely terrified. His strength was quickly diminishing and if he didn’t get out of the water soon or find something to hold him up he would drown.

In a last attempt he began swimming in what he hoped was a straight line. He had to come to a wall eventually, right?  
After a few moments - he had lost sense of time - he gave up. It seemed like he was swimming in circles, neither his hands nor his feet finding anything solid and it was getting more and more difficult to keep moving. He was as lost as if he had been dumped in the middle of the ocean. Somewhere freezing. And at night.  
His stomach lurched with all the water he had swallowed and his body was so cold it had long stopped trembling.

He shut his eyes and shook his wet hair from his eyes. There was nothing left to do but give up, nowhere to go but down. He was trapped.

One of his legs cramped painfully, his yell drowned by the water filling his lungs. The surface slipped over his neck and face. He grabbed for it with numb fingers but he was no longer sure which direction it was. No up or down, no light. And no air.  
He was floating in blackness, in nothingness.

‘Don’t panic,’ he told himself and something clicked. ‘Calm down. Nothing can hurt you’.

The words were loud in his head as if he was the one speaking them. He took a deep breath and found he could.  
Surrealism came crashing down on him as he remembered.

He wasn’t trapped. And he wasn’t drowning. He was at the Shack. He was looking for Mabel.  
And Bill had been right.  
It was nightmare.

Gathering all his remaining strength and courage he pushed himself up. His feet found the floor again and he took deep gulps of air as his upper body breached the surface. It was still dark around him but the water was gone. He braced himself on all fours, panting and shivering.  
His heart jumped with joy and relief as he recognized the worn wooden floor and the ugly carpet of the living room floor in the dim light.

Sitting back on his haunches he coughed to get the water out of his lungs. But there wasn’t any. Never had been.  
The room around him seemed a little brighter than before but it took him a few seconds to notice the other people in it.

“Looks like he got away,” Mabel said and leaned closer to him, brushing his hair from his sweaty forehead.

“You believe me now?” Dipper asked when he had found his voice again.

Mabel blinked in confusion. “Believe what?”

“That...it’s a nightmare.”  
He looked around but there was no trace of water, not even the sound of dripping that had been so prevalent all this time.

“I never doubted it,” she said, her voice low and soothing.  
For some reason the motherly tone made him feel stupid. He saw her throw a worried glance behind him and turned to see Bill looking down at them.

“You never listen, Pine Tree,” he growled but below the anger Dipper could see a hint of genuine concern in his eyes. The demon blinked and it was gone.  
He stepped around them and opened the door to the gift shop.

“Ready?” he asked and Mabel got to her feet to follow him.

Dipper was about to ask a hundred questions at once but his head was still woozy. He wanted to reach out for his twin to make sure she was alright when he saw the knife in Bill’s other hand.

Mabel must have seen it too but seemed completely unimpressed by it.  
Who kept giving the demon weapons?  
They really had to put a lock on the kitchen drawer.

“Move it!” Bill barked at him. “You were so eager to jump after the nightmare, now go fix what you did!”

Dipper was too startled by the demanding tone to disobey. He pushed himself up on shaky legs and followed the others through the door, a heavy weight on his guts. What was it he had done?  
He stepped inside the shop and found the darkness was still heavy there.  
Also the sound of water had returned. He turned towards it.  
The vending machine was filled to the top with black, muddy water that oozed out from it, a large puddle spreading before it across the floor. They were careful not to step in it.

“There,” Bill said and gestured towards it.

Mabel gave a nod and Dipper looked from one to the other in utmost confusion.  
What the fuck was going on here?


	30. XXX

The basement was even darker than last time they had been down there. Or maybe it was just Dipper’s imagination.  
Before he had had the chance to stop her, Mabel had punched in the code for the hidden door and pulled the vending machine aside on its rusty hinges. There was water seeping through the walls, dripping from the ceiling and gathering in puddles on the concrete steps.  
A click and a hiss made Dipper jump and when he turned, saw the blue flame of the camping stove Mabel was carrying in front of her. He swallowed at the thought that she had had time to prepare while he himself had been caught in the nightmare. With a sickening weight in his chest he followed them down the stairs.

The air was damp and heavy with the smell of earth and decay. The fire from the stove cast dancing shadows onto the moist walls, the light reflecting off puddles and trickles and making the staircase seem like a descent into a cave. He wondered what they were trying to find down there.

“There’s a gap,” Bill suddenly said, answering his unspoken question. His voice echoes eerily from the stone walls.

“Is that how the nightmare got into the shack?” Mabel asked, her face unfamiliar in the light of the flame.

The twins waited for an explanation but the demon kept quiet.  
They soon reached the end of the narrow tunnel and stepped onto the muddy ground, feeling their feet sink into it. Before them the black water reflected the light undisturbed like a mirror. Dipper involuntarily recalled the time he had slipped into it and a shudder ran across his back.

“Hurry. We don’t have much time!” Bill urged and stepped closer to the edge of the water.

A single drop fell in the darkness, creating ripples and momentarily destroying the perfect surface before it calmed again.

“What do you want us to-...,” Dipper began but the realization choked the words in his throat. “No way!”  
He shot a panicked glance towards Mabel and saw her face solemn but determined.  
“We’re not going in there!”  
Turning to Bill he was ready to argue - or fight - but the other showed no reaction.

“Dipper...”

Mabel’s voice was quiet and easily betrayed her fear. “Let’s get it over with before it comes back.”

He didn’t look at her. All he could do was stare down the demon who was using them so shamelessly. For all he knew, he have been the one letting the nightmare in so they would have no other choice but to fight it. Then he remembered the warm hand in his hair and his annoyance turned into anger. Also at himself for letting himself be manipulated so easily.

“You heard your sister,” Bill said quietly, having no problem with holding his gaze, the color of his eyes as dark as the water before them.

Dipper was ready to snap at him when more droplets hit the lake. He cursed under his breath.  
It didn’t matter how he felt about all this. Bill had them where he wanted them and they would have to do what he said if they ever wanted to get out of the basement.  
Something small splashed on the water and all three jumped.

“Fine,” Dipper growled and gnashed his teeth, trying to sound braver than he felt. “What exactly are we supposed to do?”

He saw something like relief cross the demon’s face and quickly returned his attention to the slope at his feet.

“I need you to stand on either side of the gap,” Bill explained and pointed into the darkness.

Dipper’s stomach lurched. He knew the water wasn’t very deep but the prospect of wading through it made him feel sick.

“How are we gonna make the seals?” Mabel asked and Dipper admired her for realizing that, glad that at least someone was keeping a cool head. They couldn’t do it without the journals.

He saw Bill lift his hand and the blade glinting maliciously in it.  
“I’ll take care of that,” he said and with a quick flick of his wrist sliced open his palm.

Mabel gasped and turned her head but Dipper couldn’t pull his eyes away from the dark liquid oozing from the cut. In the dim light it almost looked black. Like the water in front of them.  
Maybe that was blood too.  
The faint feeling of reality slipping away from him made his heat slam against his chest. The nightmare was returning. Water splashed in the distance.

“Go!” Bill hissed and pressed his hand against the driest spot of wall he could find.

“We only have one light,” Mabel breathed, her voice laced with panic.

“You take it,” Dipper decided, trying to find the source of the noise in the dark.

His sister gave a quick nod then carefully stepped onto the slope. With ice in his guts Dipper held her hand to help her and his breath caught when her feet and legs vanished in the blackness. She tried to stand and luckily the water only reached her waist.

“It’s cold,” she said and shivered.

Dipper swallowed thickly. He moved to go after her but something grabbed him and he almost screamed. He yanked at Bill’s hand but its icy fingers were clasped tightly around his forearm.

“I don’t need your help!” he barked over his shoulder but the look on the demon’s face told him he wasn’t going to offer him assistance in climbing down the slope.

“This is a nightmare, Pine Tree,” he said in a low voice. “A bad dream. You understand?”

Dipper was very close to rolling his eyes at him for stating the obvious but the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes kept him from it. His arm was being pulled forward some more and his face was only inches from Bill’s.

“Whatever happens out there…,” he began and Dipper didn’t know he had stopped breathing. “...or whatever you see...It’s not real!”  
The demon stepped even closer and lifted both their hands. “But this is.”

For a split second Dipper was convinced that Bill was going to kiss him. He had no idea where that thought had come from or how he was ever going to deny he had allowed something like that to enter his mind but then Bill’s gaze dropped and searing hot pain erupted right below his wrist.  
He heard a yell that vaguely sounded like his own voice and tried to pull free but the demon’s grasp was merciless. He was yanked forward, pain shooting through his arm like fire as it was being pushed against the damp rock. Through a fog of tears burning in his eyes he recognized the shape of an eye, his own blood painting the slit pupil in its center.   
Mabel called out to him but he barely registered it.

Bill let go of him when he was satisfied with his work, Dipper’s blood as dark and glistening as the demon’s on the wall. His fingers covered the wound instinctively and they became sticky with the clotting liquid.

“Don’t let that get infected,” Bill murmured and wiped the blade on his pants.

A splash made Dipper turn around despite growing impatient with the other’s antic and he caught sight of a series of ripples on the surface heading towards Mabel’s torso. Her lips were quivering with either fear, cold or both and Dipper decided to give Bill a piece of his mind at a later time.

As he lowered himself onto the slope, the water instantly soaked his pants, dragging him down and into the lake. Inhaling sharply at the low temperature he tried to keep his balance on the slick ground while holding his injured arm safely above the surface.

Another splash.

Closer this time.

Bill didn’t need to tell them to hurry.  
Mabel was giving the demon a look, Dipper had never seen on her before. It was angry but calm, hateful but calculating and he had to nudge her shoulder to get a reaction. She reluctantly moved away from the slope and further into the darkness.

With every step the distance between them grew and the light Mabel carried cautiously over her head became smaller until it was only a faint flicker above the water. Dipper did his best to ignore the burning wound, the coldness soaking into his skin and the sharp edges digging into his feet as he walked. He knew the room had to end somewhere but it sure didn’t seem like that right now. He was no longer able to see where they had come from or if he was going in a straight line and hoped Bill wouldn’t leave them hanging.

The small waves originating from the movement of his body intersected with others and for a moment they formed a pattern before Dipper stood still. Now there were only the ones left that came towards him. He looked over to Mabel but her light didn’t move any more either.

His head began to feel heavy, his thoughts slowed and the sound of his breathing filled his ears. For a fearful second he thought he saw his sister’s face below the surface but that was impossible because she was at the other side of the gap that neither of them could even see and Bill was somehow trying to help or the other way round and his thoughts began to jumble together and around in his head and it made him sick with fear.

Not real, he repeated Bill’s words in his mind but surrounded by the surreality of the place, it was difficult to believe. He felt claustrophobia creep up on him and wrap around his chest and throat. The waves became bigger and displayed a more random pattern, telling him something was coming closer.  
It took a lot of effort for Dipper to turn his head away and he found comfort in the shimmer of Mabel’s light. He opened his mouth to call for her but his voice failed him when with a quiet splash the flame vanished.  
And with it his sense of reality.  
Darkness came crashing down and threatened to choke him.

Not real, not real notreal.  
Mabel was alright. There was nothing to fear. Not for sister, nor himself.  
He just had to keep a cool head.

His wounded arm throbbed painfully and Dipper began to suspect that there was more to cutting him than just taking his blood. The pain was something he could hold onto. Something that was real and soothing and kept him focused.  
His skin crawled as if expecting a touch, cold fingers, wet fur, bloated skin, underwater teeth.  
There were no walls surrounding him but the impenetrable darkness felt like a cage nonetheless. He looked for the light but his eyes only registered the white noise of deprivation. How much longer was Bill going to take? What was it even that he was waiting for? Hadn’t it been enough that he had made the nightmare retreat to the basement? Since when was the demon the one in command? If they let him, he would turn out worse than the nightmares sooner or later. He didn’t want Mabel or him to leave the Shack, or communicate with the outside world or even talk to each other alone. If anything it wasn’t the nightmare keeping them trapped but Bill.  
The thought tightened around his windpipe and next to the usual surge of anger, he was scared and helpless and something that felt like dissapointed.  
It became difficult to breathe and despite the cold water surrounding his legs and leeching on his body heat, sweat began to form on his forehead. He felt his pulse underneath his wound and found it racing.  
Then a splash and the ground vanished beneath his feet.

Dipper instinctively held his breath and braced himself for the shock of cold water. But it didn’t come. Mabel’s light floated before him but when he reached for it, he realized he wasn’t able to move any longer.  
There was no physical restriction on him as far as he could tell. It seemed his will just wasn’t strong enough to make his muscles move or Bill had taken too much of his energy and now he was too exhausted. He saw the light grow fainter and panic rose inside him. Didn’t Mabel know he was still here? Was she going to leave him?  
He tried to go after her, scream do anything to gain her attention but he remained mute and motionless. Isolated in darkness.  
He couldn’t help feeling angry at her. And at Bill. Had he too just abandoned him? Like a mere pawn in a game of chess?

The light went out and the quietness that followed was excruciating.  
A thought edged into his mind, slow and barely there but Dipper knew it was important. If only his brain would work properly. It was as difficult as remembering something he knew he had forgotten. The gleam of metal, a sting of pain, the feeling of cold rock. Dark blood and the shape of an eye, looking at him. So familiar.  
His wrist flared with agony as he dug his nails into it. This was real. He let the pain take over his mind and reality hit him like a punch as he felt the nightmare retreat. His chest burned and his body ached all over. Before he could figure out what had happened or where up and down were, something tore at his arm.  
When he screamed his mouth filled with water. He felt it force its way into his lungs and he trashed his legs and felt them slide out from under him on the slippery floor. His shoulder bumped into something and he threw up his arms to push it away. The muscle in his right thigh cramped and the pain made him go limp. His head was pulled up and when he broke the surface he was struck with a violent coughing fit.  
There was air but he felt like drowning.  
The water burned in his throat and nose and it was impossible to inhale. And arm wrapped around him to help him stand and when he was able to open his eyes the light and Mabel had come back. He wanted to say something but that only resulted in more coughing. His whole body was numb with cold and trembling with fear and exhaustion.

He thought they had walked a good distance into the underground lake but it only took them a minute to get back to the shore. Bill held out his hand for them but Mabel ignored it and Dipper wasn’t feeling strong enough to take it and pull himself up.  
It took him a few tries to climb the muddy slope and when he did, collapsed onto his knees. His stomach convulsed and he threw up the water he had involuntarily swallowed. Apparently almost drowning had been real after all.

“Are you done?”

Mabel’s voice rand unnaturally loud in the large room. Bill didn’t say anything and Dipper didn’t look at him but he must have gestured something to his sister’s satisfaction.

“Good,” she said and Dipper was pulled to his feet once more and dragged towards the exit.

While the slope had been closer than he had expected, the stairs back to the Shack seemed endless. By the time they had stumbled through the door behind the vending machine, soaking wet and covered in mud, his chest was heaving and the taste in his mouth made his stomach turn.  
He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so miserable.

The gift shop looked more familiar now. There was no water on the floor and the vending machine looked as old and ordinary as ever. Mabel pushed it shut then quickly resumed her position between him and Bill. The demon said something but Dipper’s head was ringing, his ears full of water and he didn’t catch it.

“Don’t touch him!”

This he heard clearly.  
Before he could tell what was going on between them, Mabel had led him out of the room and upstairs. She told him to shower and change his clothes and opened the bathroom door for him.

“Take your time,” she said, even though she had to be just as cold and tired as him. “I’ll take care of the rest.”

The rest? Dipper was left wondering what she meant with that but felt grateful that she didn’t expect any more effort from his side.  
As soon as she had left, he undressed and got into the shower. He scrubbed down ferociously and drank large gulps of clean water to rid himself of the taste and memory of the muddy lake. After that he already felt a lot better. He changed into sweatpants and a hoodie and realized it was the black one he had borrowed Bill half an eternity ago.  
It smelled of laundry detergent.

He went downstairs and when he walked past the kitchen, saw Mabel talking to Bill. She didn’t sound as angry any more so that was a relief. He didn’t want to be the reason for that to change so he sat down on the sofa in the living to wait for them. Leaning back, he felt tiredness weigh down his body and he yawned.  
He decided to rest his eyes for a bit.


	31. XXXI

There were no dreams.  
But what Dipper woke up to was as absurd as one. He couldn’t have been out for more than a few minutes but the room sure had changed.  
The candles they had set up during the blackout were lit again and placed on the floor, forming a circle around the carpet. It wasn’t particularly dark so their purpose completely evaded him. He ran his tongue over his lips and found them wet. And salty. Touching his cheeks he wondered if he had been crying.  
He sat up and wiped his face with a sleeve. That too was slightly moist and his pulse quickened in fear of the nightmare having returned. Then he saw Mabel standing in the far corner of the room, a book in her hand, looking at him.  
It didn’t feel like a nightmare - which was easy to tell if you weren’t in one - but something was definitely wrong. He put his feet on the ground to get up and something crunched under his soles. Wincing he pulled them back up. There was a line of white powder he was sure hadn’t been here when he had laid down. It stretched to both sides and when he checked, saw it encircled the sofa.  
He shot his twin a quizzical look and she stepped closer, keeping a close eye on his movements.

“Mabel, what’s going on?”

He got no answer but could see unease in her face. One of her fingers marked the book in her hands and now she slowly opened it. Dipper recognized it as the one about demons and outdated medical advices and had actually thought it wasn’t useful to them. His curiosity spiked and he started to get up but Mabel’s reaction made him stop instantly.  
She quickly drew back, ready to bolt for the door and reached for something behind her. Dipper had never seen her so startled. Especially not by him.

“Are you ok?” he tried again. “Did something happen?”

He listened for sounds of another person but the house was quiet. Hadn’t Bill been with her in the kitchen before? Now he was becoming nervous too.

“Mabel…”

He didn’t want to sound as threatening as he did so he tried to calm her by sitting back down again. It didn’t work though and he saw her fingers curl around the worn cover of the book. She said something but her voice cracked. She cleared her throat and repeated it.  
Dipper didn’t understand a single word and it took him a couple seconds to figure out why. It wasn’t that she didn’t speak loudly or clearly enough but in a language unfamiliar to her. He let her butcher a few more words before snorting and making her look up.

“Your Latin is terrible.”

He didn’t know why but the look on her face, a mixture of anger and embarrassment made him chuckle. She looked like she wanted to throw the book at him but at the same time didn’t dare to move closer. Dipper took another glance at salt around him and the ring of candled and now it was almost impossible to keep him from laughing. He pressed his hands over his mouth but it didn’t help. Wanting to apologize he found, he couldn’t even breathe properly, only gasp for air. He tried to calm down but already felt tears in the corner of his eyes and his stomach began to cramp.

“Are you-,” he managed when he had finally settled down a bit. and his throat allowed him to talk. “”Are you trying to exorcise me?”

Even in the dim room he could see her blushing deeply and that started another fit. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed liked this. All the tension and fear from the last days seemed to fall off of him and even made him forget how incredibly tired he was.  
Mabel kept glaring at him, holding the book like a protective shield in front of her chest.

“Mabel, I’m not possessed,” Dipper tried to reassure her when he realized she didn’t find this as hilarious as him.

“That’s exactly what a demon would say,” she replied stubbornly and Dipper would have startled laughing again if she hadn’t looked so serious.

“Okay. How do I prove it then?” he asked instead and got up. “LIke this?”

He stepped over the circle of salt and held out his hands expectantly. Mabel didn’t look convinced.

“Give me the book. I’ll read the Latin to you.”

Mabel didn’t hand it over but turned it around so he could read the letters, scrawled below the text. It wasn’t Ford’s handwriting and he wished he was allowed to read more than the simple Latin. But he had offered it and he hoped what he remembered from his classes was enough. He wasn’t able to translate it word for word at the top of his head but its intention was obvious. Any demon or evil spirit was more or less politely asked to leave the house immediately and return to the depths of hell where they belonged.

While he read it out loud, Dipper briefly wondered what consequences reading them to Bil would havel and if that was the reason he wasn’t here right now. However, he greatly doubted the effect of a simple sentence. And Bill didn’t see like a regular biblical demon. He had actually never referred to him as one, only accepted what other’s had called him. A very interesting thought but instantly extinguished when Mabel reached behind her and emptied a cup of cold water into his face.

He yelped and toppled back, trying to get it out of his eyes. He tasted salt and hadn’t it been so entertaining, he would be really mad at his sister right now.

“You know you need more than just salt to make holy water, right?”  
He dried off on his hoodie and smiled at her, trying to look as little possessed as possible.  
“Mabel, it’s me. Please believe me.”

A crack appeared on her facade and he got a glimpse of a very worried and very frightened young woman.  
“Why are you doing all this?”

“I thought Bill took over your body again.” she said quietly and her voice was nothing like the one he had heard before.

“You know he can’t do that,” he replied in an attempt to soothe her. “He’s-”

“We don’t know that!” she interrupted him. “You don’t see it but I noticed that-...”

She stopped and stared at him with wide eyes as if she had just thought of something.  
“If you’re really my brother you have to answer some questions!”

Dipper was startled by the sudden change in topics.

“I can’t tell you this without being absolutely sure first,” she explained and took a few steps back.

Dipper sighed. Why was she so paranoid all of a sudden.  
“Why would Bill take my body, Mabel?” he asked and quickly banished the memory of them together the previous night. “Where is he anyway?”

Something flashed across her face and she pressed her lips together, refusing to answer.

“Fine,” Dipper surrendered. “What do you wanna know?”  
He hoped to get this over as quickly as possible. He was dying of curiosity. What did Mabel know that he didn’t? And what else was in that weird book of hers?

“Okay?” she said and cleared her throat theatrically. “These are things only the real Dipper can know.”  
She gave him a determined look and took a deep breath.

“Who was my crush in seventh grade?”

Dipper deflated. He had expected an easier question. During their time in high school he remembered Mabel pestering him with a new crush every few weeks. How was he supposed to remember every single name? And as far as he knew she had only had her first serious boyfriend a couple years later but even his name he had already forgotten? He cursed internally and shot her an apologetic look.  
Mabel rolled her eyes but to his relief didn’t seem too unhappy.

“Next one then,” she announced and Dipper wished she had just dumped more water on him to make sure.  
“What’s the name of the album Sev’ral Timez released this year?”

“What?” Dipper scoffed. “How should I know that?”

“Because I told you on our way here,” she replied, sounding the slightest bit offended.

“I didn’t even know they were still doing .. this band-thing,” he defended himself but Mabel waved him off.

“One more question and then I’ll have to set you on fire to cleanse you.”

Dipper’s eyes snapped to the circle of candles on the floor and not for the first time wondered how far she was willing to go with this.

“What is my favorite animal right now?”

Dipper’s shoulders slumped. “Right now?” he repeated, raising his eyebrows.

“Right now. You know they change every month,” Mabel clarified and crossed her arms, glancing towards the candles.

“Well…,” Dipper began, gambling for more time.

He was supposed to know that so he tried to recall if her sister had mentioned anything in the last days.  
“How many guesses do I have?”

He expected Mabel to get angry now but she seemed to relax a little.

“One,” she replied sternly. “And your time is running out.”

“Uh… cats….maybe?” Dipper tried. He knew he couldn’t be far off but Mabel frowned.

“Hamsters? Giraffes? Platypi?”

“I said one guess!” she cut him off but Dipper was glad to see she wasn’t particularly angry and hadn’t reached for any of the matches yet. Instead she stood up on her tiptoes to appear taller and pointed a finger at his chest.  
“One,” she said and poked his sternum. “His name was Walter Johnson.”

“Ouch. What?! Mister Johnson? The art teacher? Seriously?!”

Mabel ignored him.  
“The name of the album is ‘Destination Destiny’ and my favorite animals at the moment are obviously pelicans.”

“Ouh,” Dipper said and sighed in defeat.  
Now that he knew the answers they faintly rang a bell. He looked down at Mabel thinking about excuses or apologies and wondered if he should make a run for it before she found more ways to torture him.  
His eyes widened when she stepped back and over to the candles.  
“What are you doing?!”

Mabel chuckled. “Nothing,” she grinned and blew them out.

The room felt a little darker without the warm light. The sky outside was still bleak but the sun had risen higher and had slowly begun to dissolve the thick layer of clouds.

“But I didn't answer a single one of your questions.”

“Exactly,” Mabel grinned.

“I don’t get you sometimes,” Dipper frowned.

“I thought of this myself,” she explained proudly. “I had to ask you things you had known at some point but didn’t remember anymore or weren’t even aware you knew. If you had been possessed by Bill he would’ve had access to your memory and subconsciousness and could have probably answered them easily.

“I see,” Dipper nodded, amazed at how smart that was. “But what if he had tricked you?” he asked. “And just pretended he couldn’t remember. Then what?”

Mabel shook her head and patted Dipper’s knee in a condescending way. That way he knew she was about to give him one of her life-lessons.  
“I’m a people person, Dip-dop,” she began and Dipper rolled his eyes at the nickname. “And I knew immediately that Bill is far too proud to pretend not knowing something. He would have dug up the answers under all your nerd-knowledge somehow.”

“Hey! Not even I can remember all the crushes you had, Mabel!”

“Of course not,” she said, smiling. “But I’m sure the information is still there. In some corner of your brain. Deep down you knew me and Mr. Johnson had something special. And the album we listened to during the bus ride here, remember?”

“No..”

“Exactly, because you were not interested. And the pelican’s we talked about recently when we were afraid Bill would invade our dreams while we were sleeping.”

Dipper wanted to protest but then thought better of it. The questions she had picked were perfect examples of how the human memory worked. It simply out away what was too far in the past, had been considered unimportant or had been presented at the same time as something more relevant as as such rarely made it past short-term-memory. He could tell Mabel had put a lot of thought into all that.  
And all because she didn’t know if she could trust her own brother anymore. Dipper decided to never let that happen again. They were supposed to work and think of these things together. Not leave Mabel with a book as her only companion.

“At first I thought it was outdated but someone put in some really interesting additions.”

“Great Uncle Ford!” Dipper suggested eagerly but Mabel shook her head.

“I don’t think so,” she said and turned the book around for Dipper to see. Its pages were stuffed with notes but compared to Ford’s handwriting it was smaller and cleaner and consisted of full sentences rather than incoherent words and phrases.

“And that tells you how to get rid of demons?” Dipper asked, wondering if he had looked in the wrong place for a way to do that to Bill.  
“Does it work?”

Mabel shrugged. “Well… I only tried some of the things,” she said, gesturing to the salt in front of the sofa and the empty cup. “But whoever came up with this didn’t record if he had any success themselves. And you weren’t possessed so it obviously didn’t have an effect.”

“Right,” Dipper said to himself, the thoughts in his head racing one another.  
He could think of someone they could try all this out on. No matter if it worked or not. Then he thought of something else and tried to drop the question as casually as possible while he helped Mabel clean up the mess.

“Did you really think Bill could take over another body?” he asked without looking directly at his sister. “And why do you think he’d take mine?”

Mabel let a few moments pass before she answered.  
“Sorry,” she said quietly and Dipper wasn’t surprised she saw right through him.  
“I noticed you hanging around each other a lot. He would just have to wait for you to fall asleep and-...”

“Mabel, I’m not hanging around... I’m just making sure he’s not plotting anything!”

He knew how defensive he sounded but there was nothing he could do. He really had fallen asleep next to him and that had indeed been the perfect opportunity for Bill to do something. Take over his body, steal his energy, kill him.  
But he hadn’t and that was just as scary and irritating to him. Even worse, Mabel had expected that something like this would happen sooner or later and had come prepared.

“So?” she asked, brushing the salt from her hands. “Is he?”

Dipper was taken aback by her cool voice.

“Is he what? Plotting something?”

Mabel indicated a nod, or a shrug, there was no way to tell for sure.

“I...uhm...I haven’t caught him doing anything yet,” he said with a small grin but his twin didn’t find it funny at all.

“You sure?” she asked and climbed behind the sofa to get the rest of the salt.

Dipper felt cornered. Some part of him hoped that his sister was messing with him but a more rational one started to panic. Had he missed something?  
The nightmare. Broken pieces of memories, was all he could recall.  
And the feeling of drowning. And pain.  
He rolled up his sleeve and stared at the wound. The shower had cleaned off most of the mud and it was no longer bleeding but touching it still hurt plenty.  
Okay, that had definitely not been his imagination.

“He did something to us,” Mabel whispered and made him jump.

Dipper’s mouth was suddenly very dry and when he talked his voice was raspy.  
“Yes, he obviously did. He cut me.”

Mabel shot him a look while she gathered the candles and put them in the kitchen.  
“I don’t think that’s all he did,” she said. “When we were in the basement you became unconscious and almost drowned. I nearly didn’t find you in the dark.”

Dipper’s memory of that was hazy but he recalled her pulling him out of the water. He couldn’t remember actually losing consciousness but that probably wasn’t unusual. The same thing had happened in the woods the day before and he had only known when he had woken up to Bill shaking him.

“I guess the nightmares affect me more than you,” he concluded but Mabel glared at him.

“Not the nightmares,” she corrected him “Bill.”

“What do you mean?”  
He knew his sister’s anger wasn’t really directed at him but he felt uncomfortable nonetheless.

“I suspected he was somehow stealing our energy or life force or whatever. I warned you about that,” she explained, trying to sound a little calmer. Dipper saw how much effort it cost her.  
“I think he’s somehow using blood to do that… But he ends up taking too much. Energy I mean. And you get knocked out.”

Dipper shuddered.  
He had thought Bill was just using the blood for making the seals. That it was just a strange and gruesome necessity to get them to work. But using it to actually take their energy was far more dangerous. That also explained why the demon had switched from taking his own to using Dipper’s instead.

And if taking just a little blood could have such an impact what could the demon achieve with even more. Or all of it.  
And there he had been, thinking the worst he could do, was let him touch him.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”  
He wasn’t angry but Mabel winced anyway.

“I wanted to,” she replied. “But I … I didn’t know if I could trust you. I didn’t want Bill to find out we knew. And then the nightmare happened and-...”  
She sighed. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Dipper said, shaking his head lightly. “I was so obsessed with trying to find out what Bill wanted with us that I didn’t realize he was already using us.”

He closed a hand around the wound on his forearm, recalling every time he had been under the impression Bill had helped them. When in reality they had been acting as mere tools. And he had also lost Mabel’s trust in the process.  
A ball of anger began to form in his stomach and despite his exhaustion, felt like punching something. Repeatedly.

“Where is he?” he asked and this time couldn’t suppress the rage that tinted his voice.

Mabel swallowed audibly and her gaze flitted nervously across the room, avoiding his. So Dipper repeated the question.

“In Ford’s room,” she told him and reached for his arm before he could charge upstairs.  
Dipper was beginning to get sick of people holding onto him like this.  
Mabel sensed his tension and quickly dropped her hand.  
“I think he’s sleeping,” she added and gnawed at her lip.

“Then I go wake him,” he said offhandedly but his sister’s face made him hesitate.

“There’s something you should know,” she said, almost in a whisper and now Dipper was getting nervous once more.

“What?”  
He tried to sound placid but Mabel swallowed at the sound of his voice.

“I ...kind of ...put something into his drink and...”

Dipper’s mouth fell open.  
“Please don’t tell me you tried to kill him.”


	32. XXXII

The plan had been simple enough. Yet timed perfectly.  
Dipper listened, with his face in his hands while Mabel sat next to him on the sofa, telling him what he wasn't sure he really wanted to hear.

After taking a shower she had snuck off a handful of Grunkle Stan's pain meds and sleeping pills, ground them up in the kitchen and had simply offered Bill a drink. He had already been feeling exhausted from fighting the nightmare and blamed his dizziness on that. It had not been very difficult for Mabel to convince him to lie down for a bit and rest.  
Also Bill had had no reason to distrust Mabel so he probably hadn’t even been aware that she had drugged him. She could have done even worse but Dipper was relieved she had opted for the least violent solution and the demon was probably still alive.

Now was their chance to discuss their next steps. But first of all, Dipper wanted to know more about her book.

“Can I see?” he asked and held out his hand.

“Sure.”

Mabel handed it over and watched Dipper flip through the first half quickly before the highlighted words and notes began to appear in later sections. From what he could read as he scanned the text, he noticed that the majority of it focused on demonic possession and its effect on the host. Mainly as a cause for mental illnesses.  
Dipper had disregarded those assumptions when he had first seen them but some of the passages had been circled. After reading them he began to see a pattern. They all described how to identify someone who was possessed or manipulated by a demon and later on how to help them getting rid of it. As expected most of that included readings from the bible and the use of holy water. Even these paragraphs were highlighted but had been crossed out again. The use of a different pen and the higher amount of force used to mark them told Dipper it had happened at a later time and probably not been effective.  
Had someone - besides Mabel - actually tried all this?

Paging through more chapters, he was relieved to find his sister hadn’t tried all the recommended techniques. There really was one about setting the host on fire but compared to others it seemed almost comfortable. Most of them were impossible to perform without maiming or even killing the unfortunate victim and Dipper shuddered at the question mark next to them.  
Did that mean whoever put it there hadn’t dared to try them or that they hadn’t gotten usable results?

“Do you think it belonged to great uncle Ford?” Mabel asked, helping Dipper shake off those morbid thoughts.

“Maybe,” he replied. “But he wasn’t the one writing these notes.” He had become so familiar with his great uncle’s handwriting, he could tell immediately that it wasn’t his.

“Then who did?”

Dipper shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe he got it like this?”  
He waited for his twin to agree but she only hummed undecidedly, tapping her fingers to her chin in thought.

“Could be,” she finally agreed. “But maybe great uncle Ford used it to get rid of Bill.”

Dipper looked at her in alarm. “Is that why you’ve been studying it? You think it has a way to defeat him?”

“Or at least return him to his dimension,” Mabel cut him off then looked over at the book again. “What if it belonged to Grunkle Stan?” she suggested and Dipper’s head whipped around.

“What?!”

She pointed to the edge of the page where a jumble of notes suggested the use of voodoo to protect oneself from demonic influences.

“Grunkle Stan?” Dipper repeated in disbelief. “What did he have to do with Bill?”

Mabel had obviously thought about this already because her answer came quickly.  
“Well first of all he had one of the journals after great uncle Ford was sucked into the portal.”

“But only the first one,” Dipper corrected her. “Bill is only mentioned in the second. And Ford tried to get rid of all the evidence he was ever working with him.”

Mabel seemed to think about that. “Okay, but what if Bill came back after Ford vanished and tried to use Grunkle Stan to finish the portal. He had already gotten so far, it would have been easy.”

Dipper shook his head. “No, Grunkle Stan wouldn’t have fallen for his tricks. He never seemed like the guy to trust a talking triangle.”

“What if he changed his appearance? Just like he’s doing now,” Mabel suggested. “Or lied to him? Promised him something? Or threatened him?”

“Yeah...well…he never talked about anything like that.

Even to that Mabel had an answer. “Remember when Bill invaded his mind to get the code for the vending machine? He simply enter it when he was sleeping and Grunkle Stan couldn’t recall a thing. What if he wasn’t even aware what he was doing?”

Dipper couldn’t fully disagree with that but something seemed off with that theory.  
“I don’t know,” he said after a while. “I doesn’t look like whoever wrote this was trying to exorcise themselves. If Bill was already manipulating Ford or Grunkle Stan for that matter he simply wouldn’t allow them to do research on that. It must have been someone else.”

Mabel wrinkled her nose. “But who else knows of Bill… Gideon wasn’t born back then so…”

The answer came to them simultaneously and they looked at each other with wide eyes.

“McGucket!”

“Of course,” Mabel exclaimed, pulling the book towards her. “That’s why it wasn’t locked into great uncle Ford’s room. He probably didn’t know Fiddleford had done his own research.”

“You think he tried all those things on him?”  
Dipper tried to imagine McGucket pouring salt around his bed or planning to set his great uncle on fire.  
“No wonder their collaboration didn’t work out for very long.”

Mabel snickered then her face became serious again as she seemed to remember something.

“Didn’t you say you found something too?”

It took a moment for Dipper to understand what she meant. When he did, he felt his throat go dry. The book about dreams. The types of nightmares. He wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted her to know what he had read but keeping secrets from her was absolutely counterproductive. She could handle herself.  
So Dipper took a deep breath. And told her.

While he talked her face changed from curiosity to concern to pure fear. She didn’t interrupt when he explained his thoughts on the nightmares they had already encountered and that their appearance didn’t necessarily have to be literal. He hoped to console her with that but he knew it also meant it could be even worse. Like the fear of being ‘trapped’ had turned out to torture him with isolation and drowning.

“So if we’re lucky…,” Mabel said after letting his words sink in. “We might only have to face two more nightmares.”  
Despite the subject she found the strength to grin at him. “On the bright side that means I don’t have to overcome my fear of failing a test and you don’t have to deal with public speaking.”  
Dipper raised an eyebrow but hearing her joke lifted a weight of his chest. He should have talked to her sooner, he really needed this.

“Maybe that’s the last one,” he said, joking along. “We have to watch each other fail miserably and then face the nightmare of secondhand embarrassment.”

Mabel laughed at that and for a moment it seemed their situation wasn’t so bad after all. As long as they had each other. Dipper just wished he could protect her better.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t defend you from the last nightmare,” he said quietly and Mabel’s smile dropped as she sensed the change in his voice.

“Don’t say that, bro! You did great.”

“Really?” His tone was sarcastic and he immediately regretted it when he saw Mabel flinch away from him. “To me it looked liked I messed up.”  
He sighed.  
“Sometimes I don’t even know what’s real and what isn’t. I wanted to keep you from walking right into the nightmare but I was too slow. And then it got me.”

He turned his head and saw Mabel look at him with worry in her eyes. She gently placed a hand on his knee before she spoke.  
“I didn’t go downstairs,” she said slowly. “I mean… I wanted to but … but Bill held me back.”

Dipper swallowed. He remembered her step into the water and how dark it had been. How she had held out her hand to him. That hadn’t been real.

“He wanted to stop you too”, she continued when Dipper didn’t reply. “But we couldn’t. It was like … you were sleepwalking.”

“What?” Dipper began to feel cold in his chest. “What did I do?”  
It was weird being told something like this. As if it had happened to someone else and not him. He tried to recall what he had seen or felt but the memory had already begun to fade and all he remembered was endless stairs into blackness and long hair floating like a halo.

“You just went downstairs into the living room. Very slowly. It was kind of scary,” Mabel said quietly. “But Bill said there was nothing we could do. That you had to fight for yourself.”  
She smiled at him. “And you did! You made the nightmare retreat to the basement. To the gap it had come from. I think you weren’t even aware what you did, right?”

Dipper shook his head. All of a sudden he was very tired again. There were so many things he was turning over in his head, so many thoughts to sort through and yet he was not getting closer to understanding anything that was happening to them. Why had he seen Mabel walk down when she had just told him she hadn’t? Were the nightmares affecting him more than her?

“Did-” His voice cracked and he cleared his throat before he could talk. “Did you see anything… weird?” he asked and almost feared the answer.

“No…” she said. “Except the water.”

Then Mabel hesitated for a moment. “But I felt weird. Like… I was afraid it would destroy the book and I had to go downstairs… that I had no other choice.”  
Absentmindedly she traced the letters on the cover of her book with her fingertips.

“I was actually thinking a lot about this,” she continued after a silent minute.  
“I think the nightmares are more dangerous than what Bill is trying to make us believe. I mean if they can make us see or want to do things that means they are not just acting randomly.”

Dipper pulled his arms around himself at the words. It felt like the room was getting colder. The nightmare had actually used bait. And it knew what worked best. But what for?  
“Okay let’s say that’s true… what would they want with us?”

Mabel shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t know. They can’t hurt us directly so maybe they’re trying to ...lure us somewhere?”

“Like the basement?” Dipper suggested.  
He shuddered at the thought of a nightmare attempting to drown him in dirty, dark water. If Mabel hadn’t pulled him out, it could have been successful. He tried to shake the memory off but it wouldn’t leave. Not only were the nightmares getting more powerful, one had also managed to find a way into the Shack.

“Could be,” she agreed, almost in a whisper, her thoughts already straying.  
“Maybe they want us to go somewhere. And I think they made me want to leave the Shack yesterday too.”

Dipper frowned. Yesterday. That was ages ago. He remembered the heat and a destroyed road but a lot of what he recalled was already blurry and hard to make out.

“You told me you wanted to get help. Didn’t you?”  
Mabel had begun chewing on her lower lip and he could see the indents her teeth left on it.

“...Yes,” she agreed quietly as if she wasn’t entirely convinced. “But what good would it have done? The people in town can’t help us and Grunkle Stan and Ford would have taken hours, maybe days to get back. All I did was get you all in danger.” She breathed deeply.

“And got a heat stroke,” Dipper added. “I think you hurt yourself more than you hurt us. You risked so much just to contact Stan and Ford.”

Mabel frowned. “But I didn’t even make it into town to call them. And even then… let’s be honest, what can they do?”  
She buried her face in the crook of her arm. “I don’t know what I was thinking. It made so much sense back then and now I feel so stupid.”

Dipper was at a loss for words. He wanted to disagree, to make his sister feel better but she would see through a lie and that would make it even worse.  
“Don’t say that,” he told her. “Not your fault one of the nightmares made you think that. Maybe running off on your own was not the best idea but I did even more crazy stuff.”

He reached out a hand to lightly touch her shoulder. She didn’t move away.  
“Like walking into the woods in the middle of the night by myself in my pyjamas. Or almost drowning in waist deep water because I’m too dumb to distinguish dreams from reality. If anyone is doing stupid things it’s me.”

She turned her head a little so she could look at him with one eye and Dipper saw that she was smiling faintly.  
“Thanks, bro,” she breathed and leaned into his touch a little. “I think we’re both being stupid sometimes. Especially since Bill showed up.”

Dipper nodded in agreement. “Yep. But maybe together we can outsmart him. Think we should implant a steep plate in our heads, just in case?”

Mabel chuckled. “Gross! No!”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll find a way to send them back. And Bill right after them.”

She lifted her head from her arms and placed it on her knees. “I know,” she said quietly and began to study the pattern of the carpet on the floor.

They sat like this for a while, each immersed in their own thoughts. Dipper was getting more and more frustrated with their situation. And with Bill. If the demon wanted their help, he needed to completely disclose his plans to them. Provided there was one. 

Mabel seemed to be thinking along similar paths when she began to talk again.  
“What do you think Bill needs us for?” she asked into the silence of the living room and the words hung there for a moment before Dipper answered.  
He didn’t know if he wanted to say it out loud.

“I don’t think Bill was lying when he said he needed help with fighting nightmares and closing the gaps,” he said, carefully choosing his words. “But like you said, for him we are just a convenient source of energy.”

He lightly touched the wound on his arm through the fabric of his sleeve and winced as it stung at the contact. Bill had hurt him badly without batting an eye and the thought sat heavily on his chest. They couldn’t trust him to not go even further than that. Next time it could be Mabel’s blood he wanted. Or maybe he had already gotten it.

“Did he cut you too?” he asked and tried to get a good look at his sister’s arms. Who said he wasn’t doing the same to her?

He was trying not to panic but his heart was racing now. Mabel noticed and quickly held out her arms to him.  
“No,” she said but Dipper wasn’t ready to calm down just yet and began to look for hints of injuries on the rest of her body.  
“Maybe he did something while you weren’t paying attention.”

Mabel scoffed. “Bro, I would know if he was trying anything because his face would look different now.”

Dipper wasn’t in the mood for jokes but her lightheartedness calmed him a little. So Bill had only taken his blood until now. Good. But it didn’t feel right. There had to be more to that than simply preferring to inflict pain on him rather than his sister.

“You think he wants to hurt me?” Mabel asked and there was a hint of unease in her voice, even though she tried to sound unimpressed.

“If he wanted to he would have done it already,” Dipper said.

It didn’t make sense. His blood wasn’t any different than his sister’s. In fact with them being related, even twins, it should be similar. Was it just easier to get it from him?  
Then one small thought led to another and they began to form a picture of what the demon was doing to them. At first it was a slow process but the more thoughts connected the faster it went and although it was blurry at first, Dipper felt he was on the right track.  
A terrible notion began to spread and for a moment he couldn’t find the words to convey them.

“The journals were a distraction,” he said so quietly that Mabel had to ask him to repeat it.  
“He was lying. Everything he said about holding onto them and keeping our hands on the seal was a lie.”

He turned to his sister, wanting to explain what he meant but saw that she knew what he was talking about and trying to catch up with him.   
“But why would he put so much effort into something like that?” she asked. “He was so careful with the preparation. Painting seals and everything. What was he distracting from?”

“I’m not sure,” Dipper admitted. He hated how it was so difficult to remember the nightmares or what had happened during that time.

“Did he say or do anything weird after you left … in the forest I mean?”

Dipper thought hard about it. Bill had told Mabel to stay behind and they had walked a short distance together but that had been it.  
“No...no, not really. He didn’t even talk much. He just told me to wait somewhere and then-...”

“Then what?” Mabel asked and touched Dipper’s knee to get his attention. “What?!”

“No, not then,” he said slowly and stared at his hands. “Before that. Before we even went into the woods… He cut me.”  
He held up his thumb, not realizing Mabel wouldn’t be able to see any wound or scar because Bill had healed it right after using it to paint a seal onto one of the pages. What he had thought was just the demon’s way to torture him could actually have some significance. After all, he had done the same in the basement.

“He’s not just using the blood for the energy,” he said, trying to keep his racing thoughts in order and make his sister understand what he suspected. “He needs it for the gaps. To make seals.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Mabel said impatiently. “But then why isn’t he taking any of mine too?”

“He doesn’t have to,” Dipper stated. He could no longer sit still and got up from the couch.  
“Bill said he needs three seals to close the gaps so why was he only making one?”

He started pacing up and down, hoping Mabel would find a flaw in his reasoning and tell him he was talking nonsense. But she just stared at him motionless, unblinking.

“He took my blood to make the third seal for himself,” he thought out loud. “He didn’t need to make more because there were already two others in the basement.”  
His heart was hammering in his chest and he was unable to keep talking.

“That’s why he wanted us to go into the water,” Mabel said, mostly to herself and her eyes looked impossibly wide on her pale face.  
“Not to lure the nightmare into the gap but-...”  
She swallowed.  
“But to form a triangle around it...He doesn’t need my blood for the seals,” she said a little louder. “Because I am already one.”

She looked at Dipper and her voice was barely audible.  
“We both are.”


	33. XXXIII

Everything made sense.  
And for once Dipper was anything but happy about it.  
By acquiring some of his blood, Bill had managed to create seals that were not only easy to move and control but also had a direct source of energy. Cutting symbols into trees took time and the demon had still needed blood and one of the twins to activate them. Like what he had done when Dipper had been confronted with the first of the nightmares. When they fought the second one Bill had placed him and Mabel strategically around a gap with a seal made from Dipper’s blood in the journal. This one he had used but the other two books had been completely worthless. And now they were lying among dead leaves and moist soil, discarded and left to rot.

When they had been faced with the third nightmare in the basement, the demon hadn’t even bothered to create a distraction. He had just told them to move into the lake and to either side of a gap only he knew existed and completed the triangle by adding the last seal with Dipper’s involuntary donation.  
It was the only logical explanation how he had been able to do that but one Question was still unanswered. They had no idea how he could have possibly done that.

They had both searched their bodies for any markings or scars or weird formations of moles but they couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Dipper wondered if the seals themselves had been a distraction too and it was making his head hurt. The longer he thought about it the more ridiculous were the answers his brain came up with. He was getting desperate for actual answers but he also knew that waking Bill now wouldn’t end well. Especially if he figured out what Mabel had done to him. Also they could really use some peace and quiet to plan their next moves so they decided to leave him be for now.

Even though Dipper wasn’t feeling hungry, Mabel convinced him to a late breakfast and they postponed their brainstorming to afterwards. His sister whipped up a delicious meal of scrambled eggs, toast and grilled vegetables and Dipper couldn’t deny that he felt loads better with a full stomach. He was a tiny bit wary of the orange juice she poured him but Mabel only laughed when he told her she didn’t need pills to get him to sleep, he was tired enough already. But instead of taking a quick nap as he had initially intended, made them each a large cup of coffee and they sat down at the kitchen table with McGuckets notes open on top of it.

“I have an idea,” Dipper said after staring at the book hopelessly for a while.  
“Why don’t we try all the exorcism things just in case one actually does work.”

Mabel who had perked up at first, pulled a face at him.  
“And then what? Either he will get really annoyed or his body destroyed. Don’t forget he’s taken it from an innocent man,” she added when she saw him shrug his shoulders.  
“You’re horrible sometimes. I know you don’t care much for Bill but we at least gotta try to save his host so no hurting him, ok?”

Dipper scoffed and rolled up his sleeve, showing her the cut on his arm. It had closed up what the skin was red and swollen around the edges.  
“Only if he does the same,” he snarled and immediately regretted it when Mabel winced at his tone.

“I know… just ...hold out a little longer, okay? We’ll think of something… We can’ fight the nightmares without him.”

“And he can’t do it without us but why am I always the one bleeding?” Dipper interrupted her.

Then he remembered that Bill had cut himself first. And the time he had bandaged his fingers when the demon had clawed seals into the bark of trees. Compared to that his wound suddenly didn’t seem so bad anymore. He shook the thought off.

“And what happens when the nightmares are gone and all the gaps closed. You think he’ll just thank us and leave?”

Mabel sighed and leaned back on her chair, her gaze unfocused.  
“Don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “We wouldn’t even know when that time comes I mean-... we can’t even see them. But I believed Bill when he said he wanted to go back to his dimension. He wouldn't go through all this trouble if he could.”

“I guess,” Dipper agreed after letting the word sink in. “He wouldn’t be helping us because he cares so much about Gravity Falls,” he added.  
“Didn’t he say he was rounding up energy for by sending back the nightmares?” he asked after a moment.  
Mabel nodded.

“And when he has enough? Will he just open another gap? A larger one? What will happen to this world when he does?”  
He gave Mabel a hard look when she didn’t answer.  
“I hope we don’t have to find out,” he said slowly and heard her breath catch.

“So we need a way to stop him before he can do anything like that,” she summarized and pressed her lips together as if wanting to undo what she had just said.

Dipper gave a small nod and then averted his eyes, almost afraid of what he would see in his sister’s. They sat in silence for a few long minutes, each submerged in their own thoughts, neither of them courageous enough to voice what they was going through their heads..  
Even if they somehow managed to destroy the body Bill had taken hostage, Dipper thought, he would probably just get a new one. Not to mention that he would have become a lot more powerful with the energy he had gathered until then and it probably wouldn’t take him as long as the first time. But maybe - just maybe - that was enough to buy them a little more time before the events of nine years prior were about to repeat themselves. If sacrificing one life for the sake of saving a whole town was what it took, then they had no other option. Simple as that.

An image popped up in his mind. He was reading the dream book while Bill slept on the bed next to him. His back was turned, his breath calm and even. There was nothing he had to worry about, nothing to fear. He would just have to build on that trust and act quickly when the chance arose. His hand in his hair, on his neck. On his throat.  
It would be so easy.

“Dipper?”

He jerked from his thoughts, Mabel’s gaze was fixed on him. His entire body felt cold.

“You had a weird look there, bro.”  
She frowned but didn’t ask what what he had been thinking about and Dipper suspected that was because she already knew. Although, maybe not all of it.  
He swallowed to relax his constricted throat and clenched his fingers to get the blood flowing again.

“There may be another way,” she said before Dipper’s imagination could torture him further. “But it’s a long shot and highly risky.”

What could be riskier than trying to kill a demon, Dipper wondered but suppressed the urge to say it out loud.

“Bill can only take over a body whose owner allows it, am I correct?”

Dipper pulled a face.  
“Well that’s how it was with Ford but I was definitely not okay with that.”

Mabel shrugged. “Yeah, right, he tricked you but you agreed on a deal with him so it counts.”

Dipper opened his mouth to protest but quickly remembered that his sister probably did not bring it up because she wanted to complain about the mistakes he had made when he was a kid.

“Anyway, she continued when she was sure she wouldn’t be interrupted again. “What I’m trying to say is, what if we can get the guy...what was his name...Nathan? Nathaniel? to force Bill out of his body?”

Dipper raised an eyebrow. “You’re right. That is a long shot.”

“Hear me out,” Mabel demanded and the tone in her voice made his mouth snap shut.

“The reason Bill doesn’t lose control of the body when he falls asleep, is because there is no mind actively trying to push him out. If we can somehow get access to Nathaniel’s subconsciousness, we could save him and get rid of Bill at the same time.”

That sounded too good to work so Dipper refused to get his hopes up. It showed on his face and he could see Mabel getting increasingly frustrated with him.

“That would be amazing if we could do that,” he quickly admitted and held up his hands in defense. “But to be honest I don’t see us capable of entering someone else’s mind at the moment. Especially not Bill’s.”

“We would have to do it while he’s asleep of course,” she reminded him.

“Right. But how do we know if the guy’s...Nathaniel’s mind is still intact? If he’s in a coma he won’t be able to do anything and besides…” He slammed the book shut. “...we can’t do anything without the incantation in the journals.”

Mabel’s shoulders slumped and she started chewing the insides of her cheeks. Dipper hadn’t intended to shoot down all of her ideas but they had to keep it realistic. Now he really wished he could ask Ford for advice. He had worked with Bill for a long time and had to know at least one of his weaknesses. Sadly there had been nothing about that in the journals but despite their collaboration there was very little information on Bill in them. Even the ‘Cipher-file’ he had created just for him had not told him any more details about the demon than what he already knew or had experienced himself. It would be strange for someone like Ford to not research the most powerful being he had encountered until then and not keep any notes on it.

The book!  
His breath caught. There was still that book Bill had been holding under his nose since yesterday. Some of Ford’s notes had been in it. Maybe that’s where he kept all his knowledge about him. Dipper pushed back his chair and was almost halfway across the room when Mabel called after him.

“Where’re you going?”

The slight panic in her voice made him turn around but not completely stop.

“To Ford’s room,” he replied. “I think there’s something there that can help us.”

“Wait!” She ran after him but Dipper was already on the stairs and had no intention to to do that.

“Don't go in! What if he’s awake?”

Dipper shrugged. “So what= And I’ll try to be quiet.”

“No, that’s-...I-”  
She stopped and now Dipper knew something was up.

“Mabel,” he said slowly and came down the stairs again to met her at the foot. “You didn’t just put pills in his drink, right?”

It was more a statement than a question but Mabel shook her head nonetheless. Dipper’s eyes were drawn to the upper hallway as if expecting a person there. The silence in the Shack seemed nearly unbearable now.

“Don’t worry. He’s alive. I checked on him,” she said quickly but her brother wasn’t reassured in the slightest. Whatever Mabel had done to him, Bill would be really mad. He could hear it in her voice. But he also wanted to get that book so he would have to go upstairs sooner or later. He had to mentally prepare for that.

“I-...,” Mabel began and Dipper took a deep breath, convinced he would not like what he was going to hear.

“...kind of...tied him to the bed.”

Dipper gasped and swallowed at the same time and was shaken by a violent coughing fit. He had not been prepared for that mental image. Okay, that at least explained why the demon hadn’t left his room yet.

“Also I gagged him.”

And that was why it had been so quiet.

“The hell, Mabes?!”

“I’m sorry! I panicked, I didn't know what else to do!”

She looked at him, pleading for forgiveness or at least understanding and while Dipper could absolutely sympathize with her, he was already trying to come up with various ways to defuse this situation. If they were quick enough and Bill was still asleep they could untie him and pretend nothing had happened. But he would definitely know that he had been sedated so maybe they should just leave him how he was and wait for the best.  
Dipper groaned. There was just no way this would end well.

“What are you gonna do now?” Mabel asked when he had begun to walk again.

“I don’t know,” he replied truthfully. “But I think it’s best if you stayed down here for a while, ok?”

It wasn’t meant as a punishment but rather for her safety and Dipper was relieved when she didn’t argue about that. Although when he took the last steps, he wished he had some company.  
The hallway and the rooms looked as they always had but the closer he got to the door to Ford’s room at the far end the darker it seemed. It was leaning open but the gap was too small to see anything but a part of the rug. Dipper’s ears were strained for any sounds, breathing, footsteps, the rustling of clothes.  
There was nothing but his own heartbeat.  
He put his hand on the door, ready to push it open in case Bill was hiding behind it, waiting for someone dumb enough to enter. Or perhaps he was already gone. Smashed the window and climbed out to the roof or snuck behind their backs when Mabel had been busy reading Latin to him. The fact that he had nowhere to go barely grazed his mind. He was dependant on then. At least to some degree. And they were on him but Dipper was sure their ceasefire was no longer in force.  
He had to know what was in the room, though. He couldn’t just sit and wait. if Bill wasn’t in it, he could at least get the book and work out a possible way of defense. He scraped together his remaining courage and pushed open the door, expecting to see an empty bed. He had no such luck.

Bill was crouched on top of the covers in a seemingly uncomfortable sitting position, his arms behind his back. He wore one of Dipper’s old shirts and the pair of sweatpants he had taken from him the day before. He could be asleep but his head hung low and his hair covered his eyes. They could as well be open behind it, watching him. He didn’t move at the sound of the door

Dipper held his breath and after checking that Mabel hadn’t been following him, stepped inside. Still no reaction. He moved a little closer, ready to jump at the slightest movement but all he detected was the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest. Good, he was still breathing.  
Even if his mouth was stuffed with what looked like a pillow case. It was tied around his head so he wouldn’t be able to get it off without the use of his hands. Unfortunately for the demon, those were tightly secured around the headboard behind him. As Dipper walked around him carefully, he saw his wrists and elbows were bound by yet another pillow case, rendering his arms completely immobile. In addition to that they were tied to the headboard using a leather belt - probably from ford’s dresser - making escape impossible.  
Dipper made a mental note never to mess with his sister ever again. Apparently knitting and crafting for the majority of her life had made her an expert in tying people up.  
The knots were designed to tighten further the more Bill pulled on them but loose enough to not restrict circulation. Dipper wondered if the demon’s legs were tied as well and if he had to watch out for kicks when he would go looking for the book under the comforter. He had unconsciously moved very close to the bed to inspect Mabel’s work and had been so fascinated by it that he hadn’t noticed the pair of eyes following him.

When he realized Bill was looking at him he made an embarrassing sound at the back of his throat as he tried to keep from screaming and stumbled backwards only to trip over to rug and land uncomfortable on his leg. Bill’s face was unmoved. He hadn’t even raised an eyebrow at the other’s reaction. Dipper remained on the floor for a few more moments, anticipating an outburst but the demon only blinked once and then fixed his gaze onto the mattress again.

So he hadn’t woken him up just now, Dipper concluded. If that had been the case he would have been faced with a much more violent attitude. Considering the lack thereof he must have come to terms with his current situation a while ago. He had struggled and only hurt himself more so he had eventually resented. Or he was simply waiting for the right moment to strike. Dipper had long since given up on trying to figure the other out. There was just no way of telling what was going through his head. Which also meant he had to be extra careful if he still wanted to get the book. He had to think of a way to distract him.

Sitting up slowly but keeping his head down, he edged closer again. Bill didn't seem to mind but that wasn’t reassuring at all. Dipper didn’t know what to say so he cleared his throat. For that there was a brief glance thrown his way. 

“I-...,” he began but his voice didn’t sound like his own. “I have some questions,” he tried again and this time sounded almost not afraid.  
“And you’re going to answer them.”

Bill narrowed his eyes at him but it was a long way for it to be an actual glare. He looked more tired than threatening, more defeated than angry and Dipper breathed deeply to get rid of that pressure on his chest. He was definitely the last person to feel pity for the demon.  
He just wished he reacted in a way that made it possible for him to anticipate his actions but the only thing he got was that empty stare.  
It could be the effect of the pills or Bill was just messing with him. Or he had given up on everything. His tied wrists and arms had to hurt like hell, yet he didn’t pull on them. The way his body was slumped against the headboard looked like it was actually holding him upright rather than back. Dipper moved closer some more, still on his hands and knees, but careful to keep his distance for now.

Bill was still looking at him, mildly interested or maybe even scared but whatever the reason he didn’t turn away when Dipper cautiously lifted a hand towards his face. When his fingertips grazed the fabric of the pillowcase around his mouth, Bill winced only the slightest bit. Dipper’s fingers were steadier than he had hoped when he reached for the knot behind his head. It took a few tries to loosen the gag but he managed to pull it away eventually.  
For a brief second the image of fangs chomping down on his harm flashed across his mind but Bill didn’t even make an attempt to shake off the fabric himself. He simply licked his dry lips when it was gone but other than that remained as passive as before. Dipper waited for him to meet his gaze and when after a long minute the demon finally did, he took a deep breath.

Maybe he should have backed away a couple of feet again but it was too late now.  
As soon as the question was out of his mouth, however, Bill’s face had changed. Where before had been disinterest now was a shocked expression and huge, startled eyes.  
Dipper flinched. Never had he seen an emotion of this magnitude on Bill’s face. It was so human it was almost bizarre. While he stared at the demon, his voice still rang loudly in the room.

“When did you make me into a seal?”


	34. XXXIV

The surprise on Bill’s face vanished as quickly as it had appeared.  
As soon as he had seen Dipper’s reaction he quickly gathered himself and tried to seem as distant as before. The nervousness wouldn’t quite leave his eyes, though, and he averted his gaze to hide it.  
Dipper needed a moment to catch up with what was happening. Apparently he had caught the demon completely off-guard with the revelation of knowing something he wasn’t supposed to know. He couldn’t help feeling extremely boisterous about that and even found the courage to get up from the floor and look down at Bill who once again refused to acknowledge his existence.

“So?” he said, trying to sound intimidating but was careful to keep out of reach of the other’s legs He wished Mabel had tied them up too.  
He tried to get a better look at the demon’s face and saw, besides a small frown, it was as stoic as before.

Bill made no attempt to answer his question. He merely ran his tongue over dry lips and vehemently ignored him. Dipper sighed but knew that getting angry was not the right way to get him to talk. Instead he stepped back and after making sure Bill still wouldn’t look at him, left the room.

He quickly breached the short distance to the bathroom and threw open a cupboard at random. It only contained towels so he moved to the next where he found something he could use. He wouldn’t take anything made of glass in risk of having Bill break it and possibly hurt them both so his sister’s old plastic cup she used to keep her toothbrush in, was perfect. After cleaning off the dust, he filled it halfway with tap water and walked back into Ford’s room.  
To his relief Bill was still there. Not that he could have gone anywhere being tied up like that but he was a demon after all and had already done too many unexpected things.  
Dipper pushed the door closed even though it wouldn’t stay shut due to the broken latch but he somehow didn’t want Mabel to see what he was about to do.

Kneeling down and resuming his previous position by the bed, he held out the cup and waited for a reaction. He knew Bill couldn’t use his hands but he also knew that he had to be thirsty and his mouth dry from the fabric of the pillow case. He saw the other’s eyes briefly flit to the water and he knew he had won.

“You haven’t been eating much since yesterday” he said, edging a bit closer. “But thirst becomes a lot more agonizing after a while than hunger.”  
He moved the cup a few inches and saw Bill’s eyes following the movement.

“I promise it’s safe,” he added, dropping the taunting tone from his voice.

There was no use in torturing him. They were still supposed to be on the same side. At least as long as the nightmares were a threat. Dipper saw Bill’s throat move as he involuntarily swallowed and brought the cup closer to his lips again. It would take a huge chunk out of the demon’s dignity to drink like this but under the circumstances he had no choice. He also seemed to know that Dipper expected an answer to his question in return and didn’t miss the chance to shoot him a hateful glare before leaning forward and parting his lips. For that Dipper was almost tempted to pull the cup away a second time but he wouldn’t get anywhere by being mean so he tilted it and let the other take a small sip from the cool liquid.  
Bill licked his lips then leaned in for more and Dipper let him drink. He watched the demon as he gulped it down greedily, grazing the brim with his teeth and he began to regret he hadn’t brought more.

When it was empty Dipper set the cup down on the nightstand, his eyes not leaving Bill who was once again looking anywhere but at him. He was torn between dropping a sarcastic remark, threaten him or get him another cup.  
But whatever he would decide on, Bill was obviously not in the mood to talk right now so Dipper thought about leaving and coming back at a later time. He was going to get thirsty again eventually.

“When I healed you.”

The answer was so sudden and unexpected that Dipper had almost forgotten his question. 

“What? Healed me?” he repeated. Did that even explain anything?

“Your leg,” the other reminded him his head still turned away and Dipper felt a memory resurface.

He remembered the heat of the sun and the cool shade on the back porch of the Shack. The stinging pain of his sprained ankle that hurt even more after carrying Mabel all the way back. Then Bill who had sat down next to him. The feeling of warm water around him and the relief when the pain faded and he could move freely again. Bill’s head on his shoulder, his hand on his arm, his breath on his skin.  
That had actually been one of the few times he had allowed him to come this close.  
He had trusted him.  
He had been grateful.  
For the demon it had been the perfect opportunity to do something to him. And to Mabel.

After all, he had touched her too when she was recovering from the heat stroke she had suffered. Was that the time he had somehow turned her into a seal? Now he wished he had punched him a little harder back then. He looked down at Bill with his head to the opposing wall and his hair obscuring his face and wondered why he didn’t feel angrier.

If the demon had the power to change them, to give him control over him and his twin, take their life force, make them do whatever he pleased … why had he healed them?  
Mabel’s condition had been more severe, alright, but his hurt ankle was barely more than an inconvenience. Had that really just been a distraction?

“What did you do to us?  
Dipper wanted it to come off a lot firmer and more demanding but he couldn’t muster the strength. Unsurprisingly, Bill ignored him. He was craving more answers but seeing the demon like this he began to doubt that it was really something he wanted.  
Yes, he was angry and hurt and constantly scared.  
But so was Bill.  
They had said they wanted to work together but neither had meant it. Now they were out of alternatives and with the nightmares closing in on them, there was very little left they could do.

“Look,” Dipper tried again and the tone in his voice seemed to catch Bill’s attention. His shoulders relaxed a little and his eyes briefly moved into the brunette’s direction.  
“I know we haven’t been the best team and, honestly, working with you is the worst... But if we don’t pull ourselves together and start trusting each other, neither of us will get what we want.”

Bill scoffed.  
At first Dipper thought he had imagined that reaction but then the demon looked up at him and his expression was full of loathing.

“Trust,” he repeated and spat out the word in disgust. “Don’t even bother with that. You would never get yourself to trust me.”

“That’s because you don’t tell me anything,” Dipper replied angrily, holding the demon’s gaze.  
“I have absolutely no idea what is happening and all you do is give vague instructions and expect us to follow them blindly!”

Bill looked away again and Dipper became impatient  
“There was a fucking nightmare in the Shack” he snapped. “Why didn’t you warn us about that, huh?!”

He studied the demon’s face for any sign of how he wanted to explain that but he only saw a faint crease appear between his brows.  
“That wasn’t supposed to happen,” Bill hissed, keeping his eyes on the wall.

Dipper sneered.  
“Right. That’s great! But it did and I’m sure something like this is going to happen again sooner or later so, please… tell me what the fuck you did to me and my sister!”

The last part he almost yelled but Bill didn’t even flinch. It made Dipper furious.  
“You know you’re not really in a position to stay silent for so long,” he said after a moment, a little calmer.  
When no reply came he thought of a different method.  
“Did you know that Mabel found a book on exorcism?” he asked in a low voice. “It has quite interesting ideas. Maybe we should try some on you?”

Now Bill looked up and Dipper had never seen a more hateful look on his face. His eyes stared directly at him, his pupils were dilated and his lips a thin line.  
“Are you threatening me, Pine Tree?” he growled and bared his teeth at him.

Dipper didn’t reply, just glared and successfully fought every urge to take a step back. The demon was almost immobile but nonetheless intimidating. If he had been his triangle form, Dipper thought, he would be glowing scarlet.

“You stupid meat sacs,” he barked. “You have no idea what you’re up against! Do you think it’s fun being stuck in this decaying cluster of carbon and water? You still think I’m doing this just to get revenge?”  
He scoffed. “Believe it or not there are more important things than dealing with the likes of you! You’ll be gone in about seventy years anyway so why would I care?”

Dipper frowned. He must have hit a nerve so he pushed it some more.  
“Then I don’t understand why you’re making all this so difficult!”  
He wasn’t shouting and even though Bill had gotten loud he would not be provoked by his attitude any longer.  
“Why are you working so hard to keep us in the dark What don’t you want us to know?  
What are you afraid of?”

As soon as that last question had left his mouth, Bill’s face turned from hatred to pure rage.  
He threw himself forward, his joints and the headboard creaking with the force of it. This time Dipper wasn’t prepared and jumped back to a safer distance.

“I was afraid you’d do something stupid!” He yelled.  
“And you did THIS! ...That’s what I get for healing you? You have no idea what a huge mistake you made! What if we’re attacked, huh? What then?!  
You can’t fight the nightmares on your own! You’ll be absolutely useless and you’ll come crawling back to me, crying and begging me to help you again.”

He shot Dipper a piercing glare. “Or you’ll just die, whatever comes first.”

The demon’s arms were trembling with the strain and he fell back onto the bed, panting and running his tongue over cracked lips.  
Dipper had listened with a stern face but couldn’t deny that he was shaken by Bill’s words. His heartbeat felt too slow and every breath like inhaling a thick liquid.  
Despite all that was said, he wasn’t able to feel any anger towards the other. Bill was finally showing his true colors. And from how he acted Dipper concluded he was as scared of all this as them.  
Oh god, what were they dealing with? He knew that leaving him tied up could really get them in big trouble but freeing him in the state he was in now seemed like an equally bad idea. He would have to think about this and let the demon cool down for a while.

”Don’t you dare leave!” Bill snarled when he had just turned around and made his way to the door.

“I don’t have to listen to this,” Dipper stated without looking back and was almost out in the hallway when the other called after him.

“Then go get Shooting Star! She’s way smarter than you. She’ll tell you how dumb you are for doing this to me.”

Dipper halted in his track, one hand on the doorknob and felt a smug grin tug at the corner of his lips.  
“I don’t think she would do that,” he said over his shoulder and made sure to catch every square inch of the other’s face when he added.  
“After all… she was the one who drugged you and tied you up.”

BIll’s eyes grew a little wider and his face paled ever so slightly but Dipper was satisfied when he saw him speechless. He pulled open the door with the intent of slamming it shut but then thought of something else.

“You know why she did it?” he asked and didn’t wait for an answer. “She thought you were manipulating me. She was afraid because we were finally starting to get along.”

With that he walked out and let the door swing shut behind him.  
He breathed deeply, hoping he had given Bill a bit to think about. Even if it would only make him angrier.  
He was so different from when he had fallen asleep next to him only half a day ago. Now there was no way any of them could ever trust the other like that again.

He flinched when he saw Mabel look at him from the stairs.  
“I guess he’s awake,” she said, trying to sound joking but missing by a mile.

“Yeah,” Dipper said, extending an arm and blocking the way up the stairs. “But it’s better to stay down here for a while. He’s not in the best mood.”

“I figured,” Mabel replied with a glance to the upper floor, then let herself be ushered into the kitchen.  
She sat down and Dipper noticed the book was once again open in front of her.

“You got some holy water left?” he asked and Mabel shot him a worried look.

“Just kidding,” he added quickly but with no humor.  
He opened the fridge and felt his sister's eyes on him as he began to rummage through it.

“Bro, are you okay?”

“Sure,” Dipper answered curtly, retrieving a couple slices of cheese and a packet of butter. He grabbed a bag of sandwich bread and a skillet and turned on the stove.

“Did something happen?”

Dipper didn’t turn around to her. “What? No, just…”  
He spread the butter on the bread and waited for the pan to get hot before putting it in.   
“I’m trying to get Bill to talk.”

He could hear confusion and amusement in her voice.  
“With cheese sandwiches?”

Looking for a reply, he couldn’t come up with anything clever so he just watched the cheese melt in silence. He didn’t really know what he was doing either so he would only embarrass himself, trying to explain it.

“Are you still reading that book?” he asked, trying to distract her and change the subject.

“I don’t know what else to do,” she said with a sigh. “I thought maybe I overlooked something so I’m rereading everything.”

“And?” Dipper asked. “Anything in it about nightmares?”

Mabel shook her head. “Only the ones Fiddleford’s been having. Might have been Bill’s work though.”

“When he had still control over them,” Dipper stated and waited for the bread to turn a rich golden brown before flipping them over. He had never been fond of cooking but his cheese sandwiches were the best. At least Mabel had told him that once.  
He did the same to a second one then reached for a plate but at the last second changed his mind and just wrapped the two sandwiches into a napkin. In addition to not have cutlery near the demon, he also wanted to avoid everything with the potential to be shattered.

“Be careful, okay?” Mabel called after him when he was leaving the kitchen. “If you’re not back in an hour, I’ll come up to save you.“

Dipper had to smile at that.

“Thanks for believing in me,” he retorted and although he sounded lighthearted, his insides were twisting into a knot. There was no way of telling how Bill would react. If at all. Dipper internally prepared to be ignored for the most part.

He walked upstairs and along the hallway, his senses eager to pick up on anything out of the ordinary. There had been nightmare in the basement. Who said there couldn’t be another someplace else.  
He was almost relieved when he reached Ford’s room and found Bill glaring at him.  
Good, nothing had changed.

Pretending to take no notice of the demon he put the sandwiches onto the nightstand and picked up the cup. After quickly refilling it - full this time - he returned to the room and caught a glimpse of Bill eying the napkin.  
It had to smell heavenly for someone as hungry as him. Dipper grinned and the other quickly looked away. He had to admit that had been kind of cute. He set the drink down and began to unwrap one of the sandwiches. Bill shifted slightly and he could practically feel the effort it cost him to seem disinterested.

“Want a bite?” Dipper asked as casually as if he had made them for himself and was offering a piece to a friend.

Bill didn’t answer but turned his head to fully face him. His gaze was no longer as spiteful and Dipper thought this could actually work. What threats and violence wouldn’t do, he could achieve with something as simple as a snack.  
He sat down onto the bed, carefully observing the other’s reaction. When he was convinced he would not be attacked he held out the sandwich to Bill and answered his questioning look.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?”


	35. XXXV

For a long time there had been nothing.  
It could have been hours, months, years, seconds. It was impossible to tell since time itself had lost all meaning.  
So when that small flicker of awareness had sparked in the darkness, it was like no time had passed at all. Then after another endless second that single piece of existence had found another just like it.  
What a coincidence it had been.  
Amid this vast, never ending, tiny spot of emptiness. And those had attracted more, who in return brought along others and they had grown and multiplied and reached into the darkness like a blind child. There was no order, no goal, no learning, no random efforts. But finally they had arranged in what resembled a faint and dull consciousness.

Not much to do with that but wait and observe and just … be. Which meant there was time, an outside that could be observed, an existence that ‘was’. And with it came meaning, self-awareness, until finally memories.  
It kept developing and suddenly everything that had seemed so big and wide and out of reach had become closer, tangible. There was interaction, responses, a way of experiencing all that was around.  
It had been different, though, than before. And it had taken a long time from the first real thought to beginning to comprehend what that meant.

Dipper had listened without interrupting, although he wasn’t sure he had understood all of what was said and was itching to ask a ton of questions. What he deduced, however, was that Bill had not been completely annihilated by their family many years ago when he was a kid and they had been naive. Like energy he could not be destroyed. And hadn’t he claimed to be just that?  
Nine years ago they had managed to temporarily scatter his pieces all over the place, even across dimensions and it had taken that long for the demon to get back merely a fraction of his previous power.  
No wonder he was so pissed.

Dipper wondered how exactly he had done that anyway?  
In exchange for the first part of his story Bill had gotten two full bites of a sandwich and it had only made him hungrier. Dipper held it up again and repeated the question out loud. He even allowed Bill to eat before answering and felt very generous for that.

Apparently regaining some sort of consciousness in the woods of Gravity Falls next to his body turned to stone had not come as a huge surprise for the demon. The town attracted anomalies so what better place to be reincarnated?  
Except that he was in the middle of nowhere with no sense of direction or time and no physical body. He was an invisible, undetectable cluster of thoughts with so little power he couldn’t even crush dried leaves or bend the tips of grass. Then he discovered a small gap and everything changed.

Bill demanded another bite of sandwich and got it with almost no delay.

He had found it by pure accident when he had followed one of the specs of energy that were still continuously gravitating towards him, slowly arranging themselves within him. They had found their way to hm just like all the creatures in this part of the world had. Through tears in the dimensional border. He realized then that he could use them to gather more of his lost energy and when he was back to his full power was finally able to finish what he hadn’t last time.  
Unfortunately, the process of obtaining more energy was extremely slow so he decided to actively search for it. Some of it had to have returned to the mindscape after his supposed destruction so that had been the first place he wanted to look. There was just one problem.

He opened his mouth and Dipper reluctantly let him have another bite.

He couldn’t enter the mindscape on his own. He needed a mind. One more he had to wait to become stronger before he eventually got to posses a living body. It turned out birds didn’t have very complex minds.

Waiting patiently for Dipper to stop laughing, he expected the rest of the sandwich as an apology before he continued. The other gave in readily, although weary of his teeth when he held out the last piece, trying not to pull back his hand too quickly when his lips closed around it.

After recovering from the setback and acquiring more energy over the course of a few more years, he had developed the ability to take over larger animals and although he still couldn’t enter his dimension, it made it a lot easier to search for more gaps. He kept on growing and had actually planned to do so until he was fully recovered had he not one day come upon a rift that was a little different from the others.

He drank half of the cup then watched Dipper unwrap the second sandwich.

It was very small, almost nonexistent. Bill only noticed it because the squirrel which sat next to it on the ground should have scurried away at the sight of the large crow he had been occupying. Instead it simply stared ahead, empty-eyed, its tail twitching nervously. It had been caught by a nightmare.  
At first Bill didn’t believe it but at closer inspection the gap was practically oozing energy. None of which he could use but familiar nonetheless. It didn’t lead directly to the mindscape but to a dimension in between and that meant that the nightmares had not only left their realm, but also escaped the mindscape and were now running rampage across dimensions.  
That was the moment he found he had no other choice but to hurry and regain his former self before they started to invade this world as well.  
Despite great reluctance, he used some of his power to close up the gap and was surprised to find that pushing the nightmare’s energy back, pulled some of his own out from the in-between dimension, restoring and even aiding his powers. He had found a problem and its solution at the same time.  
From then on he sought out all the gaps he could find and closed them, all the while growing stronger and stronger. If he could have kept going, he would have returned to his dimension in no time and sent the nightmares back where they belonged. But with his luck nothing ever went according to plan.

Dipper looked at the remaining piece of bread and hoped he could get to the end of this before he ran out of bait. Bill followed his gaze and looked like he knew exactly what the other was thinking. With a sigh, Dipper held out the sandwich.

One day during his search, Bill entered a small clearing where a herd of deer was gathered. They weren’t grazing peacefully and his instincts were immediately alerted. He had had numerous encounters with wildlife and none of them had been able to sense him so he wasn’t concerned about that. Yet something wasn’t right.  
The animal’s ears were perked, their noses nervously sniffing the air and they looked ready to jump at the faintest sound. Only their limbs moved sluggishly and their eyes were as dull as the squirrel’s. The shift in energy, as he got closer, told him it was yet another nightmare but he was not prepared for what he would find.

The gap was much larger than all the other ones he had seen and the nightmare seeping out from it had captured not one small rodent but eight fully grown deer at once. He couldn’t seal it as quickly as the other ones, he wasn’t strong enough, Shortly before he was about to turn and leave the animals to their fate he stopped, deciding that he wanted to try one thing.  
If the deer’s minds were trapped, they couldn’t push him away when he took over their bodies.  
He was right but as soon as he had entered one of them, he immediately regretted it.

Dipper could tell he began to enjoy the attention he got for his story more than the food he got in return but that didn’t keep him from demanding another bite.

In addition to turning the deer into mindless vessels, the nightmare was also feeding of their life force. And Bill had no choice but to feel the full impact of having his energy drained. It was the first time he had ever experienced anything like that and he hated every second of it. But he was also scared and that made him even angrier. If the gaps were becoming wider, the nightmares more powerful and their influence on the dimensions bigger, then it was his responsibility to do something about that. Although watching the chaos they could bring upon this world would be hilarious to watch, they would as easily rip the borders between the dimensions and and he would only be able to enjoy it for a short while before existence itself would disintegrate and the universes began to fold in on themselves, taking everything with them. If he couldn’t be the ruler of that, there was no fun in it.

He knew, however, that he couldn’t prevent something of that magnitude by himself, especially not in his current state and even though he despised his dependence on a physical form, saw no other way of communicating with the ones he was grudgingly going to ask for help. Even only thinking that made his pelt crawl.

He received a bite of bread, extra crispy, to distract him from it.

When he had finally moved away far enough from the gap to be out of its reach, he realized what big luck it had actually been. He was in possession of the largest and strongest body since waking up in the forest and he was going to use it to get an even better one.  
After straining his body’s remaining strength for another day and a whole night he reached a small road and there he only had to wait. Hardly anyone came along but when after hours someone finally did, Bill was already trembling with exhaustion and beginning to second guess his plan.

The driver of the old car had just lost his job.  
It had been the second time this month and the tenth time that year. It wasn’t his fault. He just couldn’t help it. Sometimes his fingers would begin to feel numb or his vision blurred, other times he would drop things he was carrying or trip over his own feet when he walked. And he was only in his twenties.  
His coworkers thought he was clumsy or imply lazy and his bosses never endured him for longer than a couple weeks, more often only a day.  
Naturally he blamed himself but he couldn’t know that an illness was developing inside his body, that his nerves and spinal cord were slowly being eaten away and that he wouldn’t live to see forty.

His reflexes were much slower now too and so it took a little too long to fully register the animal that had jumped in front of his car without warning. His hands turned the steering wheel in what seemed like slow motion and the road began to spin and slip away from under him. The next thing he saw was the trunk of a tree appearing before him and his last coherent thought was that he should have fixed the faulty airbags but he had needed the money for rent. He was out before the pain of his head hitting the windshield was transmitted to his brain.

Dipper wasn’t waiting for Bill to stop talking anymore. By now he was just feeding the sandwich to him at regular intervals without even realizing it. He thought this was the part where the story caught up with them but Bill was nowhere near done.

The injuries were a lot worse than he had anticipated. He was on the verge of losing his new body before he even had the chance to begin healing it. The splintered bones worried him but they had pierced organs and arteries and he was rapidly bleeding to death. He knew, however, that he couldn’t repair the damage too fast or the owner’s consciousness would return and he didn’t have enough power to keep it away. It would be agonizing for both of them.  
Then he found he could tap into his energy just like the nightmares had done. Maybe it was because their structure originated from a similar source or energy was the same in every dimension but it was the only way.  
He felt the power rush at him with the same force the nightmares had taken it from him before and he found he suddenly had access to all of the person’s thoughts and memories. In the mindscape he could only observe a small fraction of a dreamer’s mind but at that moment he had completely invaded one while keeping its owner in a constant state of oblivion.  
He should have been euphoric until he realized that a not dying anymore but heavily damaged human body was moving terribly slow and keeping up this sort of artificial coma took a lot more effort than he had feared. In addition to that the pain was almost unbearable. 

He decided to take a short break, regain his strength and the look for more gaps. Not wanting to risk any surprise attacks by the nightmares he had to take some precautions.  
He had been walking until the first light of sunrise began to appear below the canopy and the Mystery Shack came into view. Before approached, he sought out three large trees surrounding the house and placed a seal on each one. He had noticed that the closer he got to the town, the stronger the nightmare’s energy intruding this dimension seemed to become. The protective seals would hold them off. At least for a while. Later he learned that the seals also interfered with power lines and cell phone reception but it was a small price to pay.

When the door opened, he fully expected Stanford and his twin or someone unfamiliar and so he was just as surprised as them when he found the kids - Pine Tree and Shooting Star - standing in front of him. Except that they weren’t kids anymore but young adults with terrified expressions on their faces and he had to come up with a new plan on the spot.  
He decided not to reveal himself and first heal before he thought about how to best get revenge on them for the mess he was in now.

To his surprise they were kind to him and had almost no objections to help him tend to his wounds. The longer he stayed and the more they cared for him, the better he began to feel. At first he thought the rift in the basement where he had told Ford to build the portal was an ideal place to gather more power and he had been disappointed to learn it had been completely dismantled years ago.   
It wasn’t a huge setback, though, because there were some smaller gaps near the woods outside and they greatly helped him knit his torn skin and fractured bones back together. He hadn’t noticed that it also changed his appearance and didn’t even know it would happen if he put too much of his own energy into this foreign body but the twins would have had found out eventually about him anyway so at least he had been able to stop pretending.

With the reliable source of energy around him he was convinced to have no problems with the nightmares at all. Until he went out to find them. Perhaps he should have waited for his body to heal more before but he had been impatient and angry at being practically stranded and at the mercy of his enemies and so he had been careless.

Dipper held out the last piece of sandwich with one hand, careful not to get too close to the other’s presumably sharp teeth but couldn’t help wincing at the slight brush of lips against his fingertips when Bill closed his mouth around it.  
He thought the blonde was going to stop talking now but as soon as he had swallowed continued, unaware that Dipper didn’t have anything to offer to him in return. Maybe he just didn’t care anymore. Maybe it was a relief to get it all off his chest. It was the most he had talked since he had shown up and he had a way with words that Dipper only knew from his favourite writers. That was also a reason he enjoyed listening to him so much.

Bill stole away into the forest the next day, stronger but unprepared. He successfully avoided a group of people, obviously in search of the body he was inhabiting. There was no way they would recognize him but he didn’t want to run the risk of raising their suspicion unnecessarily. He thought about using their life force just he had done with his current body but they had run off too quickly so he was left to using his own once again. Annoyed he followed the trail of energy to the gap between large trees but when he looked for the nightmare, it was nowhere near it. At first he found it impossible to think of what had happened then he felt a grueling suspicion rise.

Apparently the nightmare had slipped out through the gap and was now actively moving towards its target. That explained the screaming meat bags but put him before a huge problem. He could mend the gap but had no way of controlling the nightmare itself. A human mind was needed for that. Not only to attract its attention and lure it back to where it had breached the borders to this world but also force it to return and if not into the real, at least into the mindscape where he could deal with them more easily when he himself got there.  
Lucky for him he had already found two more or less voluntary subjects.

Once again he used trees to create a sealed area, leaving out the third seal because he didn’t yet know how large he really needed it and like this he could stay flexible. He messed up his fingers in the process but Pine Tree’s reaction to his bloodied shirt and hands was worth it.

Dipper sneered but his stomach did a flip. Had Bill just made a joke? He could have sworn there was a small fold of skin where the corner of his mouth moved upwards for a moment.

Bill went back to the Shack without having found a trace of the nightmare, got his fingers fixed and began to prepare a plan for the twins to help him. Little did he know that while he was at it, one of them had already started to figure everything out and before he even got the chance to warn him properly, had run off and straight into the woods.  
It was almost funny how ridiculously careless and dangerous that had been but he definitely wasn’t going to hold him back. He barely had time to grab a knife from the kitchen to carve the missing seal.

To his surprise, Pine Tree did very well both as a bait and in fighting the nightmare and Bill only had to stitch up the gap and prevent it from escaping. The fact that they were moving around freely still worried him but that was something he couldn’t tell the twins. They were better off being scared of him than the real danger. Or that’s what he assumed.

His opinion changed when Shooting Star left the safety of the Shack and got captured. Then he had had no other choice but to go after her. In the end it had worked out better than expected. The nightmare got fended off for a while, the twins slowly began to rely on him and when they had allowed him to heal them, he was presented with the best possible opportunity.  
They wouldn’t even know he had done anything.

Shooting Star had not been in any position to resist but he was amazed at how easy it had been to get close to Pine Tree. He had expected that invading his personal space so boldly would be met with a lot more resistance. Not that he minded. It was a sign of acceptance and developing trust and he needed it if he hoped to ever have a chance at returning everything - including himself - into their rightful dimension.  
He couldn’t let them become suspicious of his actions so he pretended the journals were carrying the seals instead of them. He made one seal for himself, however, using Pine Tree’s blood and for once thought he was sufficiently prepared for the next fight. He hadn’t been.

The nightmares had not only started to move faster and with purpose but were also able to manipulate their physical surroundings in addition to their victim’s mind. He didn’t know what the twins saw when they were submerged in their influence but the fallen trees and splintered branches were no product of their imagination.

The nightmare that had surprised them in their sleep had been even worse. He had registered the gap in the basement as soon as he had first entered the shack but he had been sure the seals would keep it from letting anything through. After the escalation where Pine Tree had almost been caught, he swore never to be this careless again.  
He also should have expected Shooting Star to not take kindly to him hurting her brother and who obviously had had enough of his antics. That was why he was currently tied up and with no more aces up his sleeve. Understandable but nonetheless immensely annoying and degrading.

“Does this answer your question?” Bill asked a bit sarcastically when he had ended his story.

“Well… some,” Dipper replied and enjoyed the expression he got in return. Actually he was glad Bill had told him all of that and most of the pieces had finally fallen into place. There was still a lot to think about and he really wanted to talk with Mabel about what he had just learned but he wanted to push his luck a little more.

“One thing you didn’t quite explain,” he said after a moment, carefully weighing his words. “How exactly did you do that? Making me into a seal, I mean. I thought it was that weird eye thing or whatever it is. The one you put onto the trees or painted with my-.”

“It is,” Bill said plainly with no emotion in his voice except a small hint of amusement.

Dipper waited for more but the other only looked at him with disinterest. He gestured him to keep talking but his mouth stayed closed.  
Dipper tried again. “There’s not a single mark on my body.”  
There was that cut on his arm but that could hardly be it, he thought. He attempted to seem calm but he began to realize that Bill was going to be difficult again.  
“Tell the truth!”

He knew he had lost when he heard his own raised voice and Bill’s lips stretched into a sly smile.  
“What do I get in return?”

Dipper froze. His eyes darted to the empty napkins then back to the other’s face. Really? They were still playing this game?

“Fine,” Dipper said and sighed in exasperation. Two could play after all.  
“I’ll untie your arms.”

His words had the intended effect. Bill looked at him surprised by the generous offer but stayed suspicious. Dipper waited patiently and saw the demon wiggle his shoulders, hissing in pain.

“Alright,” he said grudgingly after making sure he really couldn’t get the restraints off without help.

Dipper’s pulse quickened. He was completely aware that this could just be a trick but he had to take the risk. He believed what Bill had told him just know, seeing no reason why he should keep lying and he hoped the other though the same about him. Mabel was not going to be happy.

“I couldn’t let you find out about it of course,” Bill said after settling down again and fully facing the brunette. “So I didn’t place the seal on your skin. Although that was my initial intention.”

“So there is one on our bodies?!” Dipper interrupted him, feeling a shudder run across his shoulders. He stared at the demon in horror.

Bill didn’t seem to mind his reaction or the interruption.  
“Every seal I make needs three parts,” he continued and Dipper remembered him explaining it like that once already.  
“They also need to be connected in order to work. A seal in the bark of a tree connects to others through their roots in the ground. I can practically use any of them since a forest is like one huge organism. Like a body. To heal you I simply touched you in three different places and your veins and nerves formed the connection. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical one.”

He basked in Dipper’s full attention for a while before continuing.  
“The journals are connected by the hard work and dedication Ford put into them, I wasn’t lying about that. But the connection between people of the same blood… family, sibling, twins… is much stronger.”

Dipper swallowed. His mouth was as dry as sandpaper.  
“But we’re… Mabel and me… we’re only two people. Where’s the third seal?”

“Well observed, Pine Tree,” Bill replied and Dipper couldn’t tell if he meant it or was being sarcastic again.  
“Since you share the same blood,” he went on. “All I had to do, was get some of it and make the third seal myself.”

“That’s why you cut me,” Dipper stated and instead of angry his voice sounded indifferent. “Did you hurt Mabel too?”

To his relief Bill shook his head. “She was always careful to keep her distance,” he said and Dipper pretended not to notice the faint smirk.

“So the seals have to connect to our blood,” he said instead, reluctantly, a picture of the simplified eye etched into the walls of his arteries appearing in his mind. He shuddered. “Is it on one of our organs? Our hearts?”

Bill snickered. “Don’t be stupid. You would’ve noticed if I’d put it there … Or probably not actually since you’d be dead.”

Dipper found that less funny and he didn’t like being called stupid either.  
“Where is it then?” he demanded, tapping his foot nervously. He wondered if Bill was ever going to tell him. There still was a small hope the seals didn’t exist at all. But that meant the demon had lied again and he didn’t know how much more of that he could take.

“Right at the source,” Bill said proudly, enjoying the other’s growing impatience before giving in. “Your bones.”

Dipper’s stomach dropped. “What?” he said more in surprise than confusion but Bill explained anyway.  
“Red blood cells are produced in the marrow of particular bones,” he said. “Which is for example your left femur or the sternum in Shooting Star’s case.”

Dipper needed a moment to take in the new information. Suddenly his left leg began to tingle and he unconsciously rubbed his hands over his left thigh. He wished he could convince himself that Bill was lying again, that he was only messing with him but a small part of him knew that he was telling the truth.  
“Why doesn’t it hurt?” he asked when he found himself capable of coherent speech again.

“Because I healed it right after,” Bill explained. “It’s just a scar now so you don’t have to worry about it causing any problems. Well maybe except if you get an x-ray. That’ll be difficult to explain.”  
He laughed but Dipper could only stare at him. Bill had invaded their life and now he had just told him that he had permanently altered the integrity of one of his bones and the only thing he did was laugh at that. And the he had the audacity to gesture to the headboard.  
“Don’t forget your part of the deal, Pine Tree,” he said with a sickly sweet voice, still grinning and pulled at the knots around his elbows and wrists.

Dipper hesitated, doubting that what he was about to do was a very good idea but under the circumstances he had no other choice. He went over to the bed, only now noticing that he had stepped away from it, looking down at Bill. His smile had vanished and been replaced by his usual blank expression.  
Dipper moved forward and carefully felt for the knot around his arms. Due to Bill’s tantrum earlier it had tightened even more and it would take a while to undo it. To get both hands on it, he kneeled onto the mattress with one leg and had to reach behind the demon’s back which brought them uncomfortably close. Under different circumstances he would have noticed but right now his senses were still dulled by shock and the weight of his racing thoughts. He began to pull at the fabric, careful to avoid touching the other unnecessarily. Bill seemed relaxed for now but he had seen how quickly that could change and he wanted to get the task done as quickly as possible.

“I see why you didn’t tell us sooner,” Dipper heard himself say after a few moments of unsuccessfully tugging on various ends of the pillowcase and feeling the silence between them press down around him. “That is some serious invasion of one’s personal space, you know.”

Bill chuckled and Dipper felt the movement against his ribs.  
“Still I’m surprised how well you take it,” Bill replied. “Honestly, I’d expected you to freak out on me.”

Dipper didn’t react to that and forced his concentration on keeping his voice steady.  
“Actually what really annoys me is that you used great uncle Ford’s journals,” he said and thought he felt the other grow a little more tense next to him.  
“I know they were destroyed for the most part but they were important to him … and to me… and now they’re gone.”

His voice shook a little at the last word and maybe unintentionally he pulled a little too harshly on the knot. Bill winced but otherwise stayed perfectly still. He didn’t even turn his head so Dipper could see his face and what he was thinking which only added to his irritation.  
It wasn’t just about the journals.  
It was about everything that had happened in the last days and what Bill had done to him and Mabel. There had been times he thought he could trust him only to find out later he had been betrayed.  
He felt part of the knot come loose and he briefly thought about tightening it again even if it meant making the demon angry.

Suddenly there was a weight against his back and his fingers stopped. He was afraid Bill knew what he had been thinking about doing and he felt his heart slam into his chest.  
Then he realized what was happening and he tensed even more.  
Bill was leaning his head on his shoulder. He hadn’t needed to move much to do that but it was also too obvious for it to be a coincidence or accidental movement.

“Sorry,” he said so quietly that Dipper wouldn’t have caught it if he hadn’t been right next to him. And it sounded so sincere that he concluded that it wasn’t just about the journals either.

He really wished he could believe him.

Slowly he began moving again and felt the fabric finally come undone under his hands. Even though Bill sighed with relief when the restraint was gone, his head remained where it was. Dipper had expected him to struggle and try to break free as soon as the first knot was gone but he was calm and patient. Which somehow made it more difficult to go through with what he was about to do.

He tossed the fabric to the side and pushed back from the headboard, feeling Bill’s weight slip away from him. Taking a generous step away from the bed and out of his reach, he turned around to find Bill looking back at him with uncertainty on his face, then weariness and finally resentment. His wrists were still tightly secured to the board behind him and his hands were fists.

“Pine Tree…,” he growled warningly but Dipper was prepared.

“I said I’d free your arms, didn’t I? Not your hands too,” he mocked, sounding a lot more confident than he thought he would. The sight of the demon being completely speechless was priceless but also made him feel terribly guilty.  
He quickly rid himself of the thought and reached for the book under the comforter.  
For a moment he couldn’t find it and was afraid Bill had moved it but then his fingers grazed the worn cover and he yanked it out and jumped back to a safer distance.  
Bill didn’t look like he was about to throw a tantrum yet and about that he was both relieved and a little concerned. He was just staring at him from the other end of the bed.

“I’m just treating you like you’ve been treating my sister and me all this time,” he said as if to justify his actions.

Bill didn’t reply. The emotions had disappeared from his face and he dropped his gaze before there were new ones. Dipper hated how that made him feel. Yet the thought of the seal on his body kept him from really regretting it.  
He turned around and left, wondering why he felt like crying.


	36. XXXVI

“You look worse every time you come back down.”

Mabel’s voice was on the edge of making fun of him but soft with worry. She didn’t wait for a reply.  
“Did it not work?” She gestured to the crumpled napkins in his hand. “The bribing I mean.”

Dipper tried to keep his expression calm and indifferent but turned away just in case.  
“No, it did,” he said and waited for the interrogation.

But Mabel did not start showering him with questions. Instead she had gone very still. He placed the book he had taken on the table in front of her then went to the fridge and took out a soda.

“Do you want to read it together?” Mabel asked and Dipper saw it for what it was. The question if he wanted company and comfort or have some space and work things out on his own. Despite being rather loud and painfully honest most of the time, Mabel had a way of telling when something was troubling her brother.  
Dipper was grateful for that. He didn’t even know himself what was going on.

“I’m not in the mood right now,” he answered honestly and opened the can with a loud hiss. “But you can start and maybe give me a summary later?”

Mabel scoffed but there was a real smile partially hidden on her lips.  
“I’ll have you know I wasn’t going to spend my vacation studying so much. Especially not these old things.”  
She jokingly poked at the cover but her eyes began to scan it for a title and betrayed her interest.

Dipper watched her when she opened it carefully. He had hovered by the door but now that the first pages were being revealed he suddenly didn’t want to be in the same room with the book anymore. He had learned more about Bill in the last half hour than he wanted to know and he wasn’t ready for more surprises. If it was urgent, he would have told him already. Right?  
Before his curiosity got the better of him, he slipped through the hallway, ignoring the stairs and flopped down onto the couch outside.

The sky was still gray and the light turned the forest into a gloomy scenery. He had to agree with Mabel. This was definitely not what he had expected when he had been promised a nice summer vacation.  
There was no water condensing on the can he was holding and even though he was wearing a hoodie he shivered in the chilly air. The sun was long past its zenith and he wondered how cold the night would be.

Despite all that he took his time finishing his drink, the cold liquid aiding his goosebumps.He had wanted to think but his head was empty and felt like stuffed with cotton, slowing his thoughts and dulling his senses. He was convinced he should be angrier about their situation, about Bill using them so blatantly and all the lying and secrets but somehow it didn’t seem right. If anything he felt powerless, a feeling that was much harder to deal with than anger or fear. He wondered if the sudden change in perspective was the reason for that.  
From the very first day he had been sure that Bill showing up, was the absolute worst that could have happened and the only thing that mattered was finding a way to destroy him one more time. He still felt like that, no denying, but now the nightmares posed a much greater threat, not to mention that their dimension was slowly being ripped apart.  
There was also the way Bill had talked about them. Why was he - a demon with endless power, originating from a similar dimension, always so sure of himself - afraid? Why did he seem so weak and vulnerable? And why did it hurt Dipper seeing him like that?

Dipper blinked, banishing the thought. He took a last long at the edge of the forest then turned his back on it and made his way back inside.  
Mabel was bent over the book, her lips moving with silent words. She barely glanced up when he entered.

“So?” he said carefully, not wanting to break her concentration but announcing his presence and the fact that he was ready to have a normal conversation once more.

Mabel smiled at him briefly then immediately returned her attention to the page in front of her.  
“What’s it about?” Dipper asked, curious what his sister might be reading.

“At first I thought I’d find something on nightmares or the mindscape,” she said when she had finished the passage and finally looked at him fully. “And yes, it is about dreams but that isn’t the interesting part.”

Dipper’s gave her a quizzical look and could tell his sister enjoyed knowing more than him on this subject.  
“Then what is so interesting?” he asked again, giving Mabel the satisfaction of having his complete attention.

“It’s about Bill,” she replied and the smug look on her face dropped a little.

“Bill?” Dipper repeated. “Like what?”

“It has all kinds of observations about him,” Mabel explained. Then, “I think this is great uncle Ford’s diary.”

Now Dipper was really intrigued and sat down beside her to peer at the pages. Mabel had placed her index finger on one of the faint pencil lines. From his perspective, Dipper couldn’t make it out clearly but Mabel read it to him.

“‘He said his name was Bill Cipher and he had been the inspiration of great minds in our history.’” Mabel looked up to shot him a quick glance.  
“‘He wants me to help him create something that will change the way we look at the universe. I don’t know whether it’s true. I will need more evidence before I can proceed.’”

The twins looked at each other, the silence heavy between them. Dipper swallowed. “I thought everything we knew about Bill was in the journals,” he thought out loud, reaching for the book and running his fingers along its edge as if he had to convince himself it was real.

“Yeah, me too,” Mabel agreed. “But maybe this can help us find his weakness.”

Dipper breathed deeply. He had had the same hope. But something didn’t add up. If Bill was worried about the book or about them finding out about it why had he made its existence so obvious? He wanted them to have it but why?

“How far did you read?” Dipper asked, a sudden realization spreading in his guts. “Did he mention the portal?”

Mabel was chewing her lip nervously again.  
“Yes. He wrote down the instructions.”

She froze. Her face mirrored Dipper’s, eyes wide and unbelieving.  
“You don’t think he wants to-...”

“I don’t know,” Dipper said quickly but his eyes betrayed what he really thought. “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”

His hands were suddenly sweaty and the soda can slipped from his fingers when he reached for it. He grabbed it before it could topple and spill over the book.

“I know he was upset about the destruction of the portal Ford built,” he said after taking a few sips. “But expecting us to build a new one is just insane!”

Dipper looked away, breathing had become difficult. He jerked away when he felt a touch in his arm.

“Don’t worry,” Mabel said, retreating her hand. “He can’t force us.”  
She looked at him expectantly, waiting for confirmation but Dipper couldn’t give it.

“That’s not what I’m concerned about,” he said, voicing his thoughts as slowly as they came to him. “I think … Bill knows what he’s asking of us… if he really wants us to rebuild great uncle Ford’s portal that is.”  
He paused, searching his sister’s face. “I’m just afraid of what makes it necessary.”

Mabel blinked slowly then sucked her bottom lip between her teeth and began to chew. It took her a few tries to form words, but when they finally emerged, they were not as quiet as he had expected, but strong and confident.

“Bill told you something, didn’t he,” she said and it wasn’t a question.

Dipper wasn’t going to hide the truth from her. He sighed. “Yes.”

Then he proceeded to tell her everything. From the moment he had stepped inside the room, every details of Bill’s story he could remember, all he knew about the nightmares and each carefully worded bit of conversation.  
He deliberately left out the part when Bill had leaned onto him but that wasn’t important. Still, it took him almost an hour to relay everything to her. He must have spent even longer in the blonde’s presence listening and hadn’t even noticed time passing.  
Mabel didn’t interrupt him once but her face and posture tensed considerably. Just like Dipper must have looked, her expression changed from curiosity to disbelief and finally horror. When Dipper repeated what Bill had told him about the seals on their bodies, she clutched at the collar of her chest. Watching her brokes his heart and anger welled up in his chest once more. It was one thing to do it to him, another to hurt his sister.  
He pushed back from the table and marched to the other end of the room, pulling open a drawer.

“What’re you doing?” he heard Mabel ask but didn’t react immediately. For a while he just stared at the content in front of him. They both felt the sudden change in atmosphere.  
“Dipper?” she tried again and his shoulders contracted, afraid of her opinion.

“I don’t know yet,” he said quietly after a moment before Mabel, who had gotten up as well now, reached him.

Her breath hitched when she saw what he was holding in his hand.  
“Don’t do anything you’ll regret,” she said slowly and resisted the urge to touch him again.

“Too late,” Dipper said, weighing the object in his hand. “But I’m trying to fix it.”  
He felt Mabel’s eyes on him.  
“He needs to know that he can’t get away with everything he does.”

“Please don’t do that.” There was pleading in her voice. “Don’t hurt him.”

Dipper turned and there was something in his expression that made Mabel wince when he looked at her.   
“Even after everything he’s done to you...to us...,” he said. “Why are you protecting him? You were the one who drugged him… and tied him up.”

Her cheeks flushed and she dropped her gaze. “I know,” she said, then a little braver, “It’s just…”

“You don’t have to feel guilty,” he told her when he could place her emotions. “You did nothing wrong. You were scared. Don’t forget what he put us through.”

She sighed and Dipper knew that wasn’t something to convince her.

“You’re too good a person, Mabel,” he said with a deep breath.  
But I’m not, he thought then turned and left the room before she could stop him.

If he had stayed she probably would have been able to talk him out of it but he had already made up his mind and if he didn’t do it now he doubted he would ever find the courage again.  
As he walked upstairs and along the hallway to Bill’s room he noticed the sun had traveled a good distance across the sky and long shadows now filled every corner.  
It didn’t make it necessary to turn on the lights in the room yet but Dipper had hoped to announce his presence differently than just appearing in the door, waiting for Bill to raise his head. Any sign of insecurity or hesitation would be a disadvantage and his facade had to be flawless from the beginning.

“Can’t stay away from me, huh?” Bill said with a solemn grin, briefly glancing up.  
“Leave me alone,” he added grimly, dropping his head again and Dipper felt his stomach twist painfully.

He thought about doing just that but what he was holding, gave him the courage needed to stay. Gripping it tighter, he took a step forward and pushed the door shut with his foot. The sound made Bill look at him again and his eyes immediately fixated on Dipper’s right hand. His expression didn’t betray any underlying emotions but he couldn’t look away either.  
It gave Dipper enough confidence to walk all the way to the foot of the bed and look down at the other. He saw Bill’s muscles move along his throat when he swallowed.

“Whatever you’re thinking about doing, Pine Tree,” he said, putting a strange emphasis on the nickname, “I’ve had worse.”

“You think I came to hurt you?” Dipper asked, keeping his voice even, without a trace of denial or confirmation. Lifting his hand, he held up the steak knife he had brought.

Bill’s eyes found his.  
“What else would you want?”

Dipper laid out his words carefully.  
“I’m not like you,” he said and let his hand fall to his side again. “I’m here to show you that I keep my promises.  
He waited for the meaning to sink in. Bill listened but made no move to reply. It made Dipper feel very uneasy but he couldn’t let it show.  
“So I want you to promise something too.”

Bill’s indifferent mask shattered when he laughed. It was short and humorless.  
“You want to make a deal,” he said, mostly to himself, shaking his head in a mocking gesture. “And you just said you weren’t like me.”  
He laughed again and this time it sounded more genuine. But not in any way friendlier.

Dipper inhaled quietly. “It’s about the seals,” he said, ignoring the last sentence. “The ones on our bodies... When we’re finished with the nightmares, I want you to undo them.”

Bill’s grin faltered but he didn’t react immediately.

“I know you still need them … and us,” Dipper went on, knowing very well that he tended to ramble when he was nervous. “But when it’s over, you will remove them. Instantly.”

Dipper forced himself to stop talking and endure the other’s silence. After a seemingly thoughtful moment Bill shifted so he was sitting a little straighter, his shoulders pulled back by the restraints around his wrists. It took some effort for Dipper not to take a step backwards even though there was a safe distance between them.

“Why would I agree to that?” he asked dismissively but his gaze remained unmoved. “And even if I did, what makes you believe I’d stick to it?”

Dipper licked his lips.  
“We already agreed on working together on this,” he said slowly, feeling each word on his tongue when he spoke.  
“But I’m afraid you’ll stab us in the back as soon as we’re done.”  
He paused, struggling to hold Bill’s gaze but not backing down. There was no need to lie or think of an excuse. They both knew their cease-fire only extended so far.

“Why do you think a promise can prevent that?”

A simple question but Dipper’s skin began to crawl. He had asked himself the same but wouldn’t have been here if he didn’t have an answer.  
“Because despite all what you want to make us believe...you’re still too proud to break a promise,” Dipper said sternly. “Or a deal. Whatever you want to call it.”

Bill stared at him for the duration of several heavy heartbeats. He huffed and his features softened a little.  
“It’s sweet of you to think that after everything that happened to me, I still have some honor left.”  
The gentle smile that had begun to appear suddenly froze.  
“But what if I don’t want to make another deal?”

Dipper’s fingers closed firmly around the handle of the knife and the subtle movement caught Bill’s eyes.  
“Then I’ll return the favor,” Dipper said nonchalantly. “I think your skin would look much better with a seal, don’t you?”

He could feel the tension rise between them. He knew Bill had endured much greater pain but not even he could build a tolerance and it was evident that he was at least a little scared. Dipper didn’t know if he would actually follow through with his threat but Bill didn’t have to know that. The wound on his arm - the one Bill had inflicted with a similar weapon - was clearly visible against his skin. Dipper had every right to get revenge for that but that was not why he was here.

With a leap of his heart he stepped forward and reached for Bill. He felt him wince despite his unwavering appearance and quickly grabbed his arm. The muscles under his hands were strained as the other tried to pull away, legs kicking into thin air. Dipper drew the knife again and Bill became still. His breathing was quick and shallow, his shoulders trembling with the painful struggle.

“I said I keep my promises,” Dipper repeated and wedged the blade between Bill’s wrist and the fabric which held them together. It took more force than he had anticipated but in the end the cloth tore and Bill’s arms were free.

Dipper could see red streaks were Bill had thrown himself against the restraints and felt the sudden urge to touch them. Before his fingers could even graze his skin, Dipper was shoved back violently. His back hit the bed and although the mattress cushioned the impact, the air was knocked out of his lungs when Bill’s weight landed on his chest.  
He gasped for breath, bringing up both hands to push him off when he realized he was no longer holding the knife. Bill’s fingers dug into his shoulders and held him down, preventing him from turning his head. Dipper fumbled blindly for the reassuring feel of the blade and drew in a breath when his fingertips grazed the handle. Bill’s eyes followed the movement and he clutched his wrist in a tight grip. The knife slipped away and all his attention returned to Bill’s face, mere inches from his own.

He felt his breath on his throat and wondered if he had made a mistake in freeing Bill. The knife clattered to the floor when it was pushed of the bed and out of his reach. Dipper flailed and twisted, trying to throw the other off but all his limbs were pinned and on the verge of hurting. They wouldn’t be able to move swiftly enough, even if he found a way to lift the weight that held them down.

Bill’s eyes were sharp and cold, flecks of a lighter color embedded in the dark irises and Dipper scolded himself mentally for noticing them. He really had more urgent things to worry about than Bill’s eye color. Even if it was probably the last thing he was going to see.

“You don’t even know how to use a knife properly,” Bill said, interrupting his panicked, incoherent thoughts.

“Then why did you take it from me?” Dipper said, still out of breath. “If you’re not worried.”

Bill’s eyes narrowed dangerously and Dipper wondered if he had become suicidal in the last two minutes.

“You’d just hurt yourself,” the other replied coldly and pressed his knee down harder.  
Dipper groaned as it dug into his thigh, his foot started to feel numb.

“Want to know what I would do?” Bill asked and Dipper shivered at the tone in his voice. It sounded threatening but playful, almost seductive and it made him feel immensely defenseless all of a sudden.

“Now, if I wanted to kill you,” be began and lifted the hand from his shoulder. “I’d just stick it here.”  
His fingers reached around Dipper’s neck and traced over a spot at the back of his head where his spine connected to his skull.  
“Even a short blade, thrusted at the right angle, would be enough to damage the brain stem. You’d be be dead before your brain could even register the pain.”

There was a pinch against his skin and Dipper was glad the knife was on the floor. He forced himself to lay completely still but his chest rose and fell quickly and his heart was aching with adrenaline. He felt Bill trace the tendons of his neck to beneath his jaw, his tips stopping right above a throbbing vessel.

“Here it’s a little messier,” Bill explained, clearly enjoying the quick pulse. “Slicing an artery leads to exsanguination within minutes.”  
He dug his nails into his skin, just to demonstrate not to hurt but Dipper winced nonetheless.  
“Hitting a vein, though,” he continued, grinning at the involuntary movement, “could easily cause an embolism, choking you on air in your blood stream.”

His hand moved over a collarbone and he leaned a little closer. Dipper got the feeling he was greatly enjoying torturing him like this. He wondered when he would pick up the knife and act out some of his descriptions. Shivering, he pushed the thought away and focused on Bill’s hand on his chest, now following the curve of his ribs through his T-shirt.

“Inflicting a fatal wound to your thorax is actually rather difficult,” he went on as if Dipper actually wanted to hear this.  
“Even if I managed to get between the bones, most I could do is, cause a pneumothorax which would be unpleasant but not necessarily lead to death immediately.”  
Bill’s palm halted over the lower left side of Dipper’s rib cage and pushed down a little.  
“Now if I’d hit your heart,” he said, looking down, the tips of his hair tickling Dipper’s cheeks. “It would probably end bad for you, which should not come as a surprise. Funny how vulnerable you meatbags are, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice a little lighter than the cold, instructive tone he had been using until now.

Dipper didn’t know what to answer. He wasn’t even sure what the question was.  
Bill had lifted most of his weight off his leg so the pain had reduced to a faint throb in his sore muscles but otherwise he did not feel entirely uncomfortable. Even with Bill practically lying on him and telling him these gruesome things. Maybe he was going into shock or something.

“With a longer blade I could try to hit your aorta,” Bill continued in that distant voice, his hands moving over Dipper’s stomach. “But with that short thing I could only poke around in your guts.”

With a jolt Dipper realized that his shirt had ridden up a bit when he had been pushed down and Bill’s hand was slowly nearing the small line of bare skin above the waistband of his pants. Somehow it was suddenly very important to not let him come in direct contact with that. Dipper shifted nervously and moved his free hand to pull down the hem, as if the thin fabric of his shirt was enough to protect him from the pain and injuries Bill enjoyed explaining to him so much.  
It caught Bill’s eye and he reached for it in an attempt to grab this wrist as well. Dipper evaded him quickly, instinctively bringing his hand up to push against Bill’s shoulder. Dark eyes met his for a second before Bill recognized the source of his behavior.  
Their forehead touched when Bill moved again and Dipper tensed visibly when the other’s fingers brushed the inch of skin he had unsuccessfully tried to cover. He arched away from the touch, muffling a noise halfway to a whine. The grip on Dipper’s captured arm tightened some more, his fingers tingling, distracting him for a moment before all his attention was instantly brought back to his abdomen.

In spite of Dipper’s efforts, the fabric had been shoved aside some more. Bill’s hand was lying flat against his skin, his fingers spreading beneath the shirt.  
Dipper squirmed and put more force into his struggles but Bill didn’t budge. He even pressed down some more, the rough texture of his fingertips trailing unexpectedly gentle across his stomach.  
Dipper felt goosebumps erupted all over his torso and a breath escaped his throat. He hadn’t realized he hadn’t been breathing during the last minute. He stilled, hoping to anticipate the other’s intentions. Bill waited for him to stop moving before he talked again.

“A wound in your intestines...,” he said and Dipper imagined he sounded slightly out of breath too. Probably from holding him down. “...Is very prone to infections. It hurts terribly and takes weeks to kill you by septicemia... One of the worst ways to go if you ask me,” he added in a low voice and curled his fingers, nails scraping skin.  
Dipper shivered, forcing himself to stop imagining them tearing into him like claws.

Bill, sensing his discomfort, relaxed them and returned to just lightly stroke his stomach.  
“Or you would bleed out internally. Either way it would be slow and painful.”

Dipper noticed his voice had become even quieter. Since it was close to his ear, he didn’t mind but the drop in volume made him swallow despite his awfully dry mouth. He still wasn’t sure what Bill hoped to gain from doing this to him but somehow Dipper had seemed to have lost his ability to fight him.  
Had Bill’s hand always been this warm? And so close to his thigh?

His breath hitched when Bill’s head moved once again and Dipper turned his face away, his hand clasped tightly on the other’s shoulder. Their cheeks touched. It was barely enough contact to be felt but too close to be ignored. Bill’s breath was almost tangible against Dipper’s neck when he talked.

“Another way would be to lacerate a major peripheral artery,” he said, now almost a whisper and Dipper had almost forgotten what he was talking about. His brain only registered the firm grip around his right wrist, the other’s face so very close, their chest touching, the palm of Bill’s hands sliding out of his shirt and onto his hip, a thumb running along the outline of a muscle.

Dipper drew a shaky breath and although it didn’t make a sound, he was sure the other had felt it. And he would be able to feel his pulse again through the fabric of his pants when he had found the sensitive spot below his hip bone where his thigh attached to his torso. Dipper inhaled sharply when Bill pressed down rather harshly, far too close to other important organs for comfort. This time he shoved more strongly against his shoulder and Bill eased the pressure but did not remove his hand.

Dipper began to gnaw on his lip. This was not what he had planned when he had taken the knife from the kitchen drawer.

“And that’s just if I wanted to kill,” Bill said, the words sending a tremor across Dipper’s back. “There’s so many ways to just hurt, or maim or disfigure.” He lightly bumped Dipper’s cheek. “I could take out an eye, severe your facial nerves, cut out your tongue…”

Dipper winced, pressing his lips together involuntarily. Bill let his fingers climb from his wrist to his palm and he slipped them into Dipper’s hand in an almost tender gesture.  
“I could cut off a finger,” he continued. Then with a smirk Dipper could feel against his face. “Or other parts.”

He squeezed his thigh and Dipper flushed uncontrollably, heat spreading from his chest all the way up to his scalp. Shutting his eyes tightly he managed to even out his shallow breathing. He had really tried to ignore his body’s reaction to the close proximity and intimate touches, hoping it was not too obvious but with Bill talking like that and his hand where it was, it had become difficult to deny.  
Before he could stop himself, he briefly wondered if the other was in a similar condition or if he was even capable in his borrowed body and his hands began to slip from his shoulder before Dipper realized what was going through his head and he recoiled hysterically.

He trashed his legs and his hands shoved at Bill’s side, desperate to get away from him and out of this situation. He managed to free the other hand and push Bill off and to the side. He sat up then brought up a knee protectively. Bill instantly regained his balance but refrained from coming at him again. They sat on opposite ends of the bed and glared at each other.

Bill’s gaze was attentive but not as distant as usual and there was a faint smile showing in his eyes. Like he had just discovered a well-hidden secret.  
Dipper held his gaze challengingly but he knew he didn’t look very intimidating, panting and with his arms and shoulders trembling from exhaustion.

After another moment of silence Bill spoke again. His voice was a low growl.  
“Don’t threaten me, Pine Tree,” he said and slipped off the mattress.

Dipper’s eyes found the knife and when Bill followed his gaze, saw it too. For a heart wrenching second Dipper saw all the things he had been told about, done to him and all feeling left his skin. His eyes locked with Bill’s and they both seemed to consider what to do next. The distance between them was too great for Dipper to try and get there before Bill, but also too short to evade an attack. For a few seconds he could only sit and wait.

Then Bill stepped forward and kicked the knife under the bed.  
“I keep my promises too,” he said plainly and without breaking eye contact.

Dipper thought he was supposed to say something to that but no words came.  
The look in Bill’s eyes worried him greatly. Before he even realized what the other was doing, Bill had walked over to the window and pulled aside the heavy curtains. At first Dipper didn’t see a reason to react but then he opened it and braced himself on the frame. Dipper’s eyes went wide and he moved instinctively. Leaping across the bed and grabbing for Bill, his fingers grazed fabric before losing contact again. He saw him briefly glance over his shoulder before pulling up his legs and jumping onto the roof below.

Dipper was ready to go after him but his strained legs wouldn’t cooperate. He managed two steps before a cramping muscle shot a bolt of pain up his thigh. It slowed him for only a second but during that time Bill reached the edge of the roof and crouched down, looking for tiles that looked sturdy enough to hold his weight.  
When Dipper reached the window he only caught a glimpse of him as he dropped out of his sight and onto the ground. He waited for a pained cry or the crack of breaking bones but Bill apparently possessed enough agility to land unharmed. Or so he seemed when he appeared again, quickly moving away from the shack.

Dipper didn’t notice he was calling after him but Bill didn’t even turn his head. He had fallen into a run, heading towards the forest. He leapt beneath the shadows of the trees and into the looming night. His hair was visible for only a second longer before that too was swallowed by darkness.

Dipper stood in front of the open window, staring at the dense line of trees where Bill had disappeared, trying to catch up with the sudden events. A feeling of dread was starting to sink into him, heavy and sharp like the cold air around him.


	37. XXXVII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [check out this amazing fanart by ototobo!](http://ototobo.tumblr.com/post/144525798884/i-wonder-what-it-is-%CA%96-this-is-a-scene)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> and sorry for the long wait!

Dipper couldn’t sit still any longer. At least not like this.  
He got up from the floor and stretched his limbs, sore from the hour-long crouch. With a last look at the door behind him, he decided that there was no harm in leaving his spot for a few minutes. Mabel had long since fallen asleep and wouldn’t even notice his absence. Not that it would bother her. It had been his decision to guard her door. And the Shack.  
Nearly every light had been switched on and although the bulbs were old and worn, they kept the shadows at bay. Shadows and dark corner where it would be easy to hide. It had been Mabel’s idea. In case Bill came back before morning.

The night had come with even more cold wind and there had still been no sign of him. They should have been grateful for him to be gone, but the jokes Dipper made about that were not well received. In spite of their suspicion that he wouldn’t return at all, they had somehow waited for him, looking out the windows often and talking very little, jumping at every small sounds outside or creaking of wood. They had busied themselves with the books but the heavy atmosphere had made it difficult to concentrate.

Mabel wasn’t angry with him for freeing Bill but she had told him that she would have liked to know his intentions beforehand.  
Me too, Dipper had said but there had been no smile. He was still in a silent argument with himself, trying to justify his own actions and responses, accusing, blaming and defending all at once. He still didn’t know why he had done it, however, except that he had promised to free him. Perhaps he had hoped to ease the hostility between them. Or maybe he had simply been sorry for what he had told him earlier.  
Whatever the reason, Dipper had no time to dwell on it. Just like he didn’t let himself think about what had happened afterwards. These were all things of the past and the present was more urgent.

He moved along the hallway, wary of the sounds his feet made on the floor boards, so he could discern them from others, trying to hide beneath. There were none, except the quiet tap of his steps and the pounding of his heart. He listened for the duration of a couple of deep breaths, his eyes on the door as if Bill would appear there as swiftly as he had vanished. Tearing his eyes away, he took comfort in the notion that they had locked the room after Bill’s disappearance, assembled the lock and pulled the door shut. A heavy chest from Grunkle Stan’s room, shoved in front of it calmed them further. They couldn’t be sure if Bill wouldn’t take the same route twice.  
The twins knew they couldn’t keep Bill from entering the Shack, but they would make it was difficult as possible and they did not want him to do it silently if he tried.

Dipper’s hands clutched the doorknob to Grunkle Stan’s room. He had spotted something before, even though he hadn’t considered it useful back then. If he could use it, he didn’t know and he hoped he wouldn’t have to find out but he felt better to have it near. Just in case.  
Like in the other rooms the lights were on and he quickly grabbed it from beside the dresser. Forcing his eyes away from the black rectangle in the window, his skin bristling with fear of seeing movement or a face there, he left the room and let out a breath when the door had fallen shut. Besides Bill there were still the nightmares to worry about and without the former they were an even greater threat. Dipper had wanted the chance to fight them alone but now that it presented itself, he wished he had had more time to prepare. Moving as quietly as possible, he went downstairs. He glanced towards the kitchen where the books he and Mabel had been studying lay open on the table.  
They had told them two more things.

One of them, they had already suspected and with Bill’s story in mind it was easy to see the connections.  
Just like Mabel had warned him, Bill had been stealing their life force. But he hadn’t done it by touch. Not alone that was. It was Fiddleford who had figured it out, although he had only observed its effects.

Whenever Ford and Bill had been working together, secluded in their hushed conversations or quiet writing and calculations, his friend seemed to tire much more easily than when he was working on the same things by himself. Then he went nights and consecutive days without sleep and barely any breaks. McGucket had assumed it had made it easier for Bill to convince Ford to hand over the control of his body but that wasn’t all of it. Bill himself grew stronger, became able to stay in this dimension more frequently, could possess a mind for longer periods of time.  
If Ford didn’t notice, Fiddleford did but there was no indication of him voicing his concerns. Maybe he hadn’t dared.  
What they had learned, their great uncle had not been very open to suggestions back then. Only at the last moment had he realized his mistakes but by then Fiddleford had been gone, leaving his notes, maybe in hopes of them being found. They had sat in Ford’s bookshelf so maybe he had.

It was Mabel who realized what exactly it was that Bill had been after during his visits. In addition to look over his progress, provide guidance and advice, he had also sought his company. There was life force in Ford’s attention, his compliments to his knowledge, sometimes when he laughed at his jokes. Ford didn’t notice that with every well-intended gesture he was giving away a piece of himself and Bill had known how to use it for his own benefits.  
And he had done the same to Dipper.  
Ever since the moment he had requested his sweater to the time he had returned from the forest with bleeding hands and had gotten them treated and every second in between when the smallest and simplest form of affection - lending clothes, sharing warmth, fixing dinner, a simple touch - had been nothing more than cold-hearted calculation.  
Dipper felt ashamed and angry for not seeing it sooner but before that he hadn’t even noticed how close Bill had edged. Like a cat stalking a mouse and striking when the distance to safety was already too great.

It was made worse by what Dipper had discovered later when he had taken a bathroom break from slouching over Ford’s and Fiddleford’s tiny handwriting. He had pulled up his sleeves to wash his hands.  
Bill hadn’t needed to touch him to take his energy, but to give it. He had put his hands on Mabel to heal her. And before he had jumped out the window his hands had been on Dipper’s skin, his face on his cheek.  
Three spots, and the cut on his arm was gone.  
It had been a parting gift of sorts. Or so Diper wished to believe.

He opened the back door, leading to the porch. A stream of artificial light followed him onto the grass, faintly illuminating the trees closest to the Shack. Everything beyond was as dark as if closing one’s eyes. Even the animals seemed to be waiting for something to happen. There was no sound of their presence as Dipper’s eyes wandered across the impenetrable blackness.

The second thing they had found in the books, had left them frustrated and depressed and Mabel had gone upstairs soon afterwards, saying she wanted to think things over.  
There were only a couple of scrambled lines in great uncle Ford’s unmistakable handwriting after he had figured out Bill’s true intentions. They were remains of his disappointment and devastation and at the very end he had hinted at ways to get back at Bill for using him.  
It raised their hopes for a short moment and two small words and a digit crushed them. They sat innocently at the very bottom of the page and the twins had stared at them for long, heavy moments.  
‘See journal 2’.

There was no journal 2.  
Only one journal had made it back from the forest - in Mabel’s hands - and it had been number 1. Dipper had had the third and he was sure he hadn’t seen Bill with the second after they had split up to fight one of the nightmares.  
It weighed heavy on him that Bill could have planned that too.  
Dipper wished he had read that particular journal more carefully. He could not remember a spell or equation to banish Bill, only the page about summoning him but if Ford had left a hint he wouldn’t have made it too obvious.

Dipper’s head was so full of thoughts he had to blink to get the porch and its surroundings into focus again. Thinking, he could do later, now he had to protect what was important to him. He sat down in the frame of the open door, gripping the baseball bat tighter. And waited.

 

***

 

A dull thud and the clutter of wood almost made him jump to his feet. With wide eyes he stared at the darkness in front of him, waiting for movement or sound. His attention must have slipped for only a minute but the thought that he had fallen asleep, guarding the Shack made his stomach turn.  
Rubbing a hand across his face, he found his fingers ice cold. He realized his whole body was shivering in the night air. Picking up the bat that had slipped from his grasp, he got up on stiff legs and walked across the porch to warm up as best as he could. He reached the steps and breathed deeply. A small cloud rose from his lips.  
Summer night weren’t supposed to be this cold.

Bill had to be freezing. He imagined him wandering the forest, clutching himself in only his thin shirt. Dipper shook his head to clear it from the thought. There was no room for pity. Bill hadn’t run off just because he had felt like it, he must have had a reason. Although it was impossible for Dipper to imagine where he could have gone.  
As far as he knew, it was still impossible for Bill to leave Gravity Falls. Ford’s equation was still intact. If it worked against demons in human vessels, though, he didn’t know.  
But Bill wouldn’t just abandon them like this, he thought. With the seals around the Shack it was the safest it could get under the circumstances. Without the other they were trapped here. That had probably been part of Bill’s plan too. Promising them safety but making it so they couldn’t leave.

Dipper switched the bat to his left hand when his knuckles had become white from gripping it too tightly. It felt good having a weapon, even if it could be used against him.  
He marched another few rounds along the porch, stopping occasionally to peer at the spot where dark grass met even darker forest. A chilly breeze had picked up and made the cold seep into his skin. How much longer until morning?

After drifting off he had lost all sense of time although he assumed it was well past midnight. He thought about getting his jacket to withstand the low temperatures but he would have to leave his post.  
His breath caught when the light behind him flickered. Under any other circumstances he wouldn't even have spared it a second glance but with his nerves taut like bowstrings he felt ready to jump at the faintest sound. He moved quietly back to the door and looked inside.  
All the light were on and once again burning steadily. The more seconds passed the more he was convinced he had imagined it. He turned back to the forest to resume his watch and his heart skipped a beat.

Between the trees was a shape that definitely hadn’t been there before. Whether person or animal, Dipper couldn’t tell. It was too far from the beam of light but stood unmoving. Dipper couldn’t shake the feeling of it watching him.  
It reminded him of the first nightmare he had fought and suddenly felt extremely ridiculous with only a piece of wood in his hand to defend himself. Before Dipper could breathe again, it came closer. Small sticks cracked beneath its feet and the way it moved, spoke of a real person. Or at least something with a physical shape.

Dipper lifted the bat. He could work with that. The thing knew he was there so he didn’t bother hiding his presence and he made sure the bat was clearly visible against the light. Another step towards him and it became human. One more and it was Bill.

Dipper’s pulse didn’t slow. The bat was over his shoulder, ready to strike. There was something odd about the way the other crossed the meadow but it was difficult to pinpoint in the darkness. When he came close enough so that the light fell on his face, Dipper saw he was limping.  
And he was carrying something, pressed protectively against his chest. It didn’t look threatening at first glance but Dipper watched it and Bill carefully. When only a few steps separated them, Bill slowed to a stop and looked at him.

Dipper straightened his back and pulled back his shoulders, trying to appear braver than he felt as he stood between him and the way into the house.  
But Bill did not attack.  
He waited until Dipper had lowered his defenses a little then slowly moved closer once more. Now the thing in his arms became more visible. What at first had appeared as a box was actually a book. Two, to be precise, and Bill was holding them out to him.  
Despite the moisture that had gotten to them, the journals looked mostly like he remembered them. Dipper tore his eyes away to search Bill’s face.

“What is this?” he asked and his voice sounded uncomfortably loud in the silence surrounding them. Even the wind had ceased.

“You were mad because I lost them.”  
Bill held his gaze, the sound of the words quiet but clear and with an undertone of what could only be described as remorse.

Dipper loosened his muscles in his arm and the bat fell to his side. He was completely stunned by the realization that Bill had run off to search for the books that meant so much to him.  
No wonder he had been gone so long. He himself couldn’t even remember what part of the forest they had been in and with the complete darkness of a starless night, he would have gotten lost rather than find two books among the undergrowth.

He looked Bill over and saw that he hadn’t had it easy either. His clothes were streaked with mud, his bare legs and feet scratched and bloody and he was trembling in the cold. Concluding that he couldn’t be a threat in this condition, Dipper leaned the bat against the doorframe. It was within reach but out of his hand and made Bill come closer some more.  
He stopped in front of the stairs and held out the journals again. When Dipper didn’t reach for them he bent down and placed them on the uppermost step, almost to his feet. It looked like a peace offering and in regards of the lengths he had gone to retrieve them Dipper deemed it unfair to refuse it.  
After a moment he slowly he came forward and picked them up without letting Bill out of his sight. The familiar weight settled comfortably against his arms and when he stood found Bill eyeing him curiously as if waiting for an answer to the unspoken question. Dipper walked back towards the shack and glanced over his shoulder, holding the door open.

“Did you think I was going to leave you outside?” Dipper asked, avoiding his gaze.

Bill glanced at the baseball bat but then began to move after all.  
“I thought you were going to bash my head in.”

Closing the door behind them, Dipper couldn’t look at the other, knowing how ready he had been to do just that if Bill had given him a reason.

“Maybe later,” he replied jokingly, in an effort to diffuse the tension between them.  
He led Bill to the kitchen to sit down and dropped the journals onto the counter. With a raised eyebrow he realized that was the third time this week, Bill had come to their house injured. On his way in his feet had left smudges of blood on the floor.

“Can I have some water?” Bill asked, pressing his hands against his arms to warm them. “Please,” he added quietly and Dipper was about to walk over to the sink when he realized what was happening.  
He had almost run into a trap. Bill would be able to take his energy if he treated him nicely, even if it was just a glass of water. He had already done enough damage by letting him in.  
Turning he managed not to snarl.  
“Get it yourself.”

If Bill had been caught off guard by this response, he didn’t show it. He merely got up, his hands braced on the table for support, wincing slightly when his feet nearly failed to carry his weight. Dipper knew he was to proud to fake something like this. Sighing he made up his mind.  
Before Bill had taken another step, he had grabbed a mug and filled it as full as possible. Under the other’s watchful gaze he placed it in front of him and quickly pulled back his hands as if scared of being touched.  
If that small gesture was draining some of his energy, Dipper decided he wouldn’t mind. Bill definitely looked like he needed it. After one more moment of just staring at Dipper and obviously wondering about his incoherent actions, he raised the mug to his lips and drained it in a few large gulps.

“More?” Dipper asked before he could stop himself.  
Bill wordlessly handed him the mug and he refilled it for him. He was carefully looking out for any signs of fatigue but the only exhaustion he was aware of was from staying up so long and the ever-present tension slowly leaving his body.

While Bill drank, he got up one of the kitchen towels and placed it on the chair next to him then gestured him to put his leg on it. At first Bill didn’t move but in the end he obeyed and watched as Dipper once again brought over the med kit.  
They were starting to run low on bandages.  
With a second, wet towel Dipper cleaned off the dirt and removed the dried - and on some places fresh - blood and examined the damage. Most of the wounds were superficial, some were deeper cuts and a few still had pieces of splinters in them. Dipper suppressed a shudder and rummaged through the box in search for a pair of tweezers.

Even if Bill could heal his skin and flesh, the splinters had to be removed first. Dipper placed a hand on his ankle, ready to hold him still should he wince. This was going to hurt.  
Pushing his pity to the back on his head, he focused his concentration on the task ahead. A rather large piece of wood had buried itself deep near Bill’s heel. That explained why he was limping.  
Dipper put the tweezers in place and yanked it out as quickly as possible. He heard Bill hiss but had no need to hold him down. The blonde had endured worse. Followed by a few thick drops of blood the splinter dislodged. Dipper put it down onto the towel and began to work on the next.

After only a few minutes a small pile of bloodied wood had begun to form. He wanted to tell Bill to wear shoes next time but then didn’t, hoping there was no next time. He didn’t plan on giving him a reason for running away again.  
When he worked on the other foot he noticed a particularly nasty cut. It didn’t look as raged around the edges where skin had torn but went a lot deeper and was still bleeding heavily. Dipper also had some difficulty getting a good grip to pull it out and when he finally did he held it against the light and found his suspicions confirmed.

It was a piece of glass.  
His first thought was that Bill had perhaps stepped on some garbage by the side of the road but the edges of the shard were clean and sharp and had broken recently. Maybe he had walked back to the wreck from the accident. But hadn’t the car been towed already? And windshields didn’t burst into pieces as a safety measure.

Dipper sighed and put the shard next to the rest of the splinters, thorns and pieces of rock he had dug up. He was probably overthinking again.  
He dabbed the wounds with antiseptic and wondered why they hadn’t healed already. His fingers hadn’t even taken a day.  
When he got up he noticed Bill watching him closely. The look on his face was nowhere near his scowl or condescending grin he had seemed to adopt when Dipper was around but something more cautious and docile.  
Like a wrong move could lead to Dipper losing his patience with him again.

This was new. Dipper hadn’t known the feeling was mutual. Maybe he had just never looked so close. Behind the facade of the demon he had been seeing since the very first day, was someone vulnerable and scared.  
Dipper quickly turned away when he caught himself staring and threw the bloody towels into the trash.  
“Come on,” he said without meeting the other’s gaze. “I’ll get you something warmer to wear.”

Bill followed him wordlessly out of the room and up the stairs and they stopped in front of the bathroom.  
“Why don’t you take a shower,” Dipper suggested. “It’ll help.”  
He had noticed Bill was still slightly shivering from his low body temperature.

When he had made sure he did as he had been told, Dipper tip-toed into the bedroom where Mabel was still sleeping soundly. He debated waking her and informing her of Bill’s return but it would have no consequences and she deserved the rest. He crossed over to the pile of clothes in the laundry basket and fished out a pair of pants, socks and a sweater. A thought crossed his mind and he took off his own hoodie and pulled on the sweater instead.  
The black hoodie was the one Bill had requested on the first day. Dipper put it on top of the pants and set the pile down in front of the bathroom door for the other to find. Then he went back to the kitchen, trusting that Bill would come down when he had finished.

In the meantime he put a pot of water on the stove to boil. In the cupboards he found a packet of instant soup and noted that they were slowly running out of food. They could still last a while but there was hardly any fresh produce left in the fridge and with a third mouth to feed their reserves had dwindled more rapidly.

He shook the powder into the pot and got the two last pieces of bread. Briefly the thought of making yet another cheese sandwich came to mind but he opted for turkey instead, rounding it off with the freshest tomato he found, its skin already a little wrinkly. He wondered if leaving the Shack to go shopping for groceries was too much of a risk. And how long they could last without them. There were a few boxes of frozen pizzas in the freezer and a small stack of Soos’ instant noodles but other than that the cupboards were bare.  
Deciding to deal with that tomorrow, he returned to preparing the sparse dinner. Just when he had finished pouring the soup into a bowl, the sound of footsteps caught his attention. Turning, he saw Bill stepping into the room. He was wearing the clothes that had been lain out for him, the occasional drop from his wet hair vanishing in the dark fabric. His skin was flushed from a hot shower and he generally seemed more relaxed. Finding it difficult to look directly at him, Dipper gestured to the table where he had sat down the food.

“Is this for me?” Bill asked and the words stung. For someone who had taken the twin’s hospitality for granted during the last days, this was unexpected.

“I already ate,” Dipper stated as an answer and left to escape the uncomfortable tension in the room.

Bill seemed on edge but he couldn’t see a reason why and the odds he would tell him if he asked were as usual very slim. He wanted to know where the other had been and why he had felt the need to risk injuries just to return the journals to him. They weren’t this important.  
He turned off the lights in the gift shop and living room, except for a small lamp and fetched the blanket from a corner.

Bill joined him after only a few minutes, his meal finished. He must have been very hungry. Dipper saw him frowning, when he realized the comfortable bed upstairs had been replaced by the small, scratchy sofa. Dipper sympathized but didn’t feel like picking the lock to Ford’s room again this late either. He shrugged and moved aside, gesturing for Bill to get comfortable but the other was holding his distance again, reluctant to come closer.

“What?” Dipper asked exasperated and a little annoyed, thinking he was going to hear complaints.

“Don’t be angry.”

Dipper stared. His eyes snapped to Bill and the air in his lungs had begun to be difficult to breathe. That was as close to an apology as he was going to get. By now he knew Bill well enough to see the meaning behind the simple words.

“I’m not angry,” he replied almost automatically but the moment the words were out, both knew they weren’t true.  
He was furious.  
Bill had run off without so much as a single word and had come back in the dead of night, injured and exhausted without any explanation. It was not safe outside. What if something had happened to him?  
But still, he had lied to them. He had told them so much and they were not able to believe a single word. Even after everything they had gone through together.

“You’re stealing our energy.”  
He couldn’t help but tell the truth this time. Under Bill’s gaze he didn’t want to lie. He was sick of keeping secrets.

Bill’s eyes went wide with realization. He looked back towards the kitchen, where Dipper had prepared food for him, then down on himself, wearing his clothes and to his feet, which had been tended to and had stopped bleeding. These were all gestures Bill had asked for or simply taken in the past and most likely used against them. Dipper had had a lot of time to think about this.

“You were testing me?” Bill asked quietly, not quite surprised but looking slightly disappointed. Dipper held his gaze and that was answer enough.

“But you can give it back, right?” Dipper said and rolled up his sleeve, showing the unmarked skin where the cut had been.  
“You did it when you healed me. Just do it again. Give back what you took from me!

Without immediately comprehending it, he had crossed the distance between them in a few quick strides and was now face to face with him.  
Bill didn’t back down. Not even when he grabbed his arms.  
He felt the other’s breath stop in anticipation of a violent reaction but Dipper kept calm, trying to plan his next moves. He hadn’t expected Bill to simply accept those accusation and the bold invasion of his personal space and now Dipper was at a loss of what to accomplish with his demands.  
It seemed like they were both too tired and annoyed by each other to think coherently.

Three spots were needed to transfer energy but with his hands on Bill he only reached two. Taking a deep breath, he leaned forward the slightest bit and their noses brushed.  
It should have come of as intimidating, to finally provoke some sort of familiar sneer or snide comment but it felt like achieving the exact opposite.  
But now it was too late to retreat.

“I didn't take your energy,” Bill said, his breath on Dipper's face. “Because I didn't need to.”

Dipper stared at him. He was trying to glare but it was difficult when his face was so close. So he just swallowed and waited for the explanation in silence.

“You don't do it on purpose. It just… flows,” he said. Bill’s brows were drawn together in concentration. He was not trying to accuse, he almost seemed apologetic.

Dipper didn’t know what to answer. He had expected everything from eluding the question to plain and simple denial but not hearing he himself was at fault.  
“And why would that happen?” he asked, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

Bill shrugged and he felt it on his hands. “I guess it’s a … human thing.”

Dipper repeated the last part, his words barely more than a breath.  
He was very confused. Stealing energy couldn’t possibly be anything humans were capable of. If anything it clearly sounded like a demonic ability. Had he missed something? He didn’t get to ask more questions, however.

“How could I not be tempted to take it…,” Bill continued, the tip of his tongue briefly darting out to lick his lips. Dipper couldn't help but follow the movement with his eyes.  
“... If you keep doing things like this?”

Like what? Dipper wanted to ask automatically but his words were choked in his throat before they had even began to form. Bill had moved and before Dipper could process the potential danger of that his whole body tensed when he felt Bill's lips on his own.

As far as he knew, Bill had no idea how to kiss so when he was clumsily pressing his mouth against his, it felt rather awkward.  
But the meaning behind it was clear and Dipper’s chest constricted. He felt his eyes wanting to fall shut and his head tilt to the side to allow more contact but with some effort he prevented both. He just stood and waited but his hand were still clasped around Bill's arms, in desperate need of the support.

After what seemed like minutes but could have only lasted for a second, Bill drew back, allowing Dipper to breathe once more.  
Bill’s gaze wavered but never actually dropped.  
He knew what it meant not to be kissed back and he didn't attempt to do it again. It was the slight touch of Dipper's hands that made him stay.

Dipper's head gave the impression of being completely void of thought or having lost its capability to produce any form of emotions or sense of reality. Or perhaps it was so full of it, it had simply ceased processing any of them.  
He felt like he wasn't really there. Like he was watching himself from a distance, curious of what he himself was going to do next.

He knew he was somehow supposed to ignore what had just occurred, brush it off and spare the other the humiliation of ever mentioning it again. His mouth opened to say something and when nothing came he closed it again. Then he swallowed the words he hadn't said.  
He panicked a little when he found he had lost the ability to speak and so had nothing left to express himself. Except for one thing.  
And this he did.

Reality shifted violently enough to make him dizzy so he closed his eyes against the vertigo. He was scared of losing balance so his hold on Bill tightened. If he pulled him forward a little it was completely on accident. The surprised breath of air against his cheek made him turn his head.  
For some unexplained reason the image of the woods suddenly filled his head. Rays of sunshine filtering through a dark canopy, the smell of tree sap and earth. Clear air. The deep silence. It was familiar and calmed him. He imagined himself walking beneath the cool shade, the ground quiet and soft under his feet.

He moved forward the faintest bit.  
Instead of a burst of reactions there was the complete lack of them. For a single second every sound, every movement, every thought had stopped to exist. As if to contain that one fragile moment for as long as possible.  
In the small circle of awareness around him Dipper was sure he had never felt so strongly for anything in his life. Even if there wasn't really much to be done right now.

He was just standing there.  
Bill's skin was warm on his palms, his lips soft against his.  
If he moved or breathed now he was convinced the world would shatter into pieces.

He held on a moment longer before letting it slip away from him. When it was gone it left him open and vulnerable but also above everything that could possibly do damage. It wasn't a feeling that could be described fully. But it wasn't necessary to do it. When he finally found the strength to let go he saw the same in Bill's eyes before he looked away.

Dipper felt he should be saying something but knew the wrong words could easily damage suddenly very important things. He knew not saying anything was equally dangerous but that was what he decided to do.  
With a small hint of hesitation he turned and left the room, Bill's eyes on him like a physical touch. He wasn't followed but the other's presence still lingered on him, unable to be shaken off just yet.

In the kitchen he saw the journals on the counter and reached out to open the second one. It was holding a secret. A way to safe Mabel and him.  
A way to banish Bill.

He didn't touch it.  
Turning off the lights along the way, he went upstairs.


	38. XXXVIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please take a look at these wonderful fanarts by  
> [iiamaww](http://orphancricket.tumblr.com/post/146597896030/iiamaww-doodled-some-billdip-from-sleeping)  
> and  
> [damare-draws](http://orphancricket.tumblr.com/post/146452815565/damare-draws-omg-i-love-the-new-chapter)
> 
> thank you so much!

Mabel had been giving him weird looks all morning. Or at least that was what Dipper felt like.  
He had woken up shortly after her, but caught up to her in time before she would have been about to have a small heart attack if she had gone into the living room and found Bill there.  
He quickly explained what had happened without going into any details and although she kept asking questions what they had talked about or why he hadn’t woken her, managed to evade them skillfully.  
Which meant ignoring her and excusing himself to the bathroom.

He had hoped to talk to her in private when he was feeling a little calmer, but when he came down into the kitchen a while later, he saw he was having no such luck.

Bill was seated at the table, a packet of cereals and a bowl in front of him. He briefly looked up when he heard him enter the room but gave no indication of unusual behavior. Dipper forcibly relaxed his shoulders and decided to play along.  
Sitting down, Mabel placed another bowl down for him as well then joined them. He didn’t know if she expected some conversation breaking the uncomfortable silence because he was keeping his eyes on the empty dish, avoiding eye contact, fearing even a glance would reveal something he wasn’t ready to acknowledge himself. When the silence prolonged he heard the shifting of air as Mabel took a breath.

“Can someone please tell me what I missed?”

Dipper felt like the air had gotten stuck in his throat and his hand reaching for the milk stopped in mid air. He knew Mabel was now glaring at either him or Bill, demanding an answer and there was no way he could give one.  
Not because he had something to hide - okay, maybe that was a small part - but because he didn’t even know himself.

Where moments like this not supposed to be highly anticipated and thoroughly planned so that none of the two parties involved would have the impression it had happened to suddenly, been over way too quickly and were left feeling like everything had completely gone over their heads?  
Or was it normal for the impact of a particular action to really sink in over breakfast the next day?

Dipper couldn’t look at his sister so he instinctively shifted his gaze and it found Bill on the other side of the table. Their eyes locked and for a second he saw his own emotions reflected in them. Embarrassment, insecurity, regret.  
He hadn’t known Bill had been adding new ones to his narrow spectrum but there they were. Yet he didn’t want them to feel any of them. There was no reason. The unusual display of helplessness and seeing Bill lost for words, lifted the weight off his chest and next thing he knew was laughing.

Not at Bill, not at Mabel but at the whole situation. He quickly stopped himself when Mabel is confused look was turning into annoyance.

“Nothing,” he said, still grinning. “You didn’t miss anything.”

He suppressed another burst of laughter when he imagined her catching them last night. Now that would have been a blast to explain, he thought and felt a sudden wave of heat spread at the base of his neck.  
It had just been an accident, a breach in his guard stemming from lack of sleep but she would never let him live it down. With a shudder he remembered her taking that picture of him and her mermaid boyfriend that one time. He looked at Bill and with delight saw that he too couldn’t hide a smile completely. It embarrassed him even more but the stinging in his chest wasn’t entirely uncomfortable.

Clearing his throat when he realized Mabel’s patience was wearing thin, he pointed to the two journals on the counter. Mabel’s his gaze followed his movement and her eyes went wide when they found the books.

“Why did you bring them back?”  
Her question was directed at Bill, her voice quiet and full of shock.

Dipper’s smile dropped. He hadn’t expected her to react like that. If he told her Bill had done it for him, he wasn’t sure he could keep a straight face. He looked over at the other to anticipate how he would react but his eyes were on Mabel.

“I thought you’d need them back.”

Mabel’s expression hardened some more. She shoot a quick glance at Dipper as if asking for help but then seemed to have made a decision on her own.

“Why?” she asked again and Dipper saw a slight change in Bill’s face.  
It became more guarded and it was then that Dipper realized he had had an ulterior motive after all.

Despite the effect of the words on him, Bill held Mabel’s gaze effortlessly.  
“Because we can use them.”

His voice was even but Dipper saw his throat move when he swallowed. He didn’t like these questions and made no attempt to answer anymore.

Mabel raised her voice again when she realized Bill wasn’t going to talk.  
“We can’t build another portal!”

The air around them seemed to became too thick to breathe.  
The memory of what had happened the previous night hit Dipper hard. Of course Bill wanted to defeat the nightmares as badly as them but his first priority was still getting back into his own dimension. Somehow he had forgotten that.  
Before his thoughts could take another turn, Bill’s voice broke them off.

“And why not?” he asked and regarded them both with a curious look. “It’s not like you have a lot of other options.”

In spite of the light tone of his words, the threat behind them was imminent. He reached for the milk that Dipper had abandoned earlier and opened it.

“It’s not like we won’t do it because we don’t feel like it,” Mabel continued, refusing to back down and Dipper admired her courage.  
“But it took great uncle Ford’s years to build the portal and decades for Grunkle Stan to activate it. We simply don’t have that time now!”

Bill’s expression remained mildly annoyed, as if he had heard those accusations many times already and had become tired of explaining.  
“One of them,” he said “Was searching for the journals for decades, the other just took forever to come up with the right equation. We happen to have both.”

“So how do you expect us to do that, huh ? We have no tools, no materials! Do you want to use the scraps of the old portal in the basement because I’m not going down there ever again!”  
Mabel kept arguing. “And how are we supposed to get our hands on radioactive waste? We can’t even leave the Shack!”

Dipper’s gaze went from Bill to Mabel and he couldn’t do anything besides stare. His sister had really thought a lot about this when he, himself, seemed to have lost all ability for coherent thought since last night. And he definitely hadn’t thought about the consequences of the journals being back in their possession. How stupid he had been to think, Bill had given them to him because he knew about their sentimental value.

“The radioactive waste was just for powering it,” Bill told her, voice calm. He sounded so confident in his plans, he wasn’t expecting any problems executing them.  
And in convincing them to help him.

“ So even if we build one, you can’t use it?” Mabel’s eyebrows were raised in confusion.

“I didn’t say that,” Bill replied, slowly tilting the milk carton. “It’s just not necessary. I can provide my own power.”

Dipper’s blood ran cold.  
So this was what he needed them for. He didn’t realize he had been gaping at him until Bill shot him a glance, void of any meaning and he quickly averted his eyes.  
There was a sudden, heavy pressure on his stomach and any appetite he had felt for the first time this week was extinguished. It took him a few seconds too long to notice that Mabel was waiting for a reaction from him. Under different circumstances he would have gone on a rampage but everything he was capable of at the moment, was sitting in and feeling a dull sense of shock.  
Guilt spread in his chest and he couldn’t find the strength to meet his sister’s eyes. It was him after all who had made that energy accessible in the first place.  
If only he hadn’t made it so easy.

He swallowed, debating to just get up but he couldn’t leave Mabel alone now, especially since she was the only one who had retained rational thinking and was capable of fixing some of the damage he had caused.

“That’s why you wanted us to have these books, didn’t you?” Mabel stated when she didn’t get any support from her brother’s side. She nodded towards the pile of old diaries she had placed on the windowsill, providing space for breakfast. “They have the instructions.”

Bill didn’t even follow her gesture. He frowned when the milk he was about to pour, came out in a thick sludge.  
“It doesn’t really matter if you want to help me or not,” he said, putting the carton down and pushing the bowl away from him. “With the nightmares trapping you here, you have no choice.”

The twins looked at the spoiled milk at the same time.  
It had been the last.  
They could probably hold out one more day before they would start to get hungry.

“Why do you need the portal anyway?” Mabel asked into the silence. “Wouldn’t another one let out more nightmares? Right into the Shack like last time?”

Bill scoffed but not as arrogantly as usual.  
“I’d open it to the mindscape not the nightmare realm. And it would only work in one direction so you don’t have to worry about that. As for your first question, Shooting Star,…”  
He paused to make sure folks when listening.

“Think about it like this. Imagine a lion escape from a zoo. Would you rather advise everyone to hide and never leave their house ever again or go and put the lion back in its cage?”

Dipper felt like his thoughts were moving sluggishly inside his head. He wasn’t sure he completely understood what Bill meant. All his attention seemed to be focused onto the gaping emptiness in his chest.

“So what you’re saying is, you have to return to the mindscape to put the nightmares back? That sounds awfully convenient,” Mabel sneered and crossed her arms.

Bill shrugged.  
“I wish I could do it from here, but I can’t. Also I still don’t have my full power so for now that’s the only way.”

“And then you’re going to abandon us.”  
Dipper’s voice sounded so different, even in his own ears that at first he didn’t realize that it was him who had been talking. Both Bill and Mabel turned to face him, as if surprised he was still part of the conversation.

“Who says you weren’t controlling the nightmares all along to trick us into helping you?”  
His voice was dripping with spite and bitterness but Bill’s face showed no emotions. It made him even angrier.

“This is just another scheme to take over this dimension, isn’t it?” he went on, ignoring Mabel’s baffled expression. Provoking Bill wasn’t a good idea but the words spilled from his mouth before he could stop them.  
“He doesn’t give a damn about fighting the nightmares,” he continued, looking at his sister who he knew was thinking the same.  
“He’s toying with us, laughing about us behind our backs. In the end it’s just for his entertainment!”

Taking a deep breath, he stopped himself from saying more.  
He didn’t know where that had come from or why he had felt the need to say it aloud but now that it was out and hanging dangerously in the air between them, he couldn’t take it back anymore. If it led to a fight, he would be awaiting it eagerly. His hands had turned into fists under the table.

Bill let out of breath.  
“If I said I don’t care about what’s happening to this meager dimension of yours and I want to leave it as soon as possible, you would believe me, wouldn’t you?” he asked patiently and not at all perturbed by Dipper’s accusation.  
“But if I told you that free-roaming nightmares affect much more than just one world and I know of a way to fix this mess, you think I’m trying to trick you. Why is that? Have I not proven enough that you can trust me with this?”  
He was talking to both of them but his eyes were on Dipper. They were staring at each other.

“I wish I could,” Dipper said quietly and the words were bitter on his tongue.  
Bill’s indifferent expression wavered for the slightest bit and then both looked away before the weight of the words became too much.

Dipper gnawed on his lip then immediately stopped when that led to resurfacing memories from last night. By now they had lost all their pleasant qualities and thinking about them made him feel sick to his stomach.

“If words can’t convince you,” Bill said after a while when not even Mabel had dared to stir the heavy tension. “Then I’ll have to resort to a different approach.”

In the sudden silence Dipper could hear his sister’s breath hitch. When he looked up, Bill wasn’t sporting his trademark malicious grin but seemed serious and tense.  
“I hoped I wouldn’t have to do this but I’m going to show you what happens if you defy me.”

 

###

 

Barely half an hour later Dipper was gripping the steering wheel of the golf cart with sweaty hands. After Bill’s ominous insinuation they had prepared to leave for town. It was there that he wanted to lead them but he had refused to say more than that. Overall, he had seemed a little sulky after their confrontation. Even now he was refusing to acknowledge Mabel’s questions but Dipper couldn’t care less.  
Going into town was the best opportunity to get some grocery shopping done and if Bill was refusing to talk that was fine by him. Dipper looked back over his shoulder to see him tucked into the narrow backseat, eyes unfocused and obviously deep in thought. Once again he wondered what the demon was scheming and hoped, they were going to make it out alive.

Sighing quietly, he turned onto the main road. Even though Soos had given the old cart a complete overhaul and it now reached a reasonable speed, he knew he would feel safer in an actual car.  
On the other hand it probably made evading cracks or gaping holes in the asphalt much easier. If the damage on the road was due to the rainstorm or the nightmare that had almost gotten his sister, he did not want to find out.  
To his surprise he found the road not as badly damaged as he had feared but the lack of other cars passing by worried him. Maybe there was a mudslide further up the road or perhaps due to the bad weather not many tourists had come here. Anyway it was too quiet.

Another thing on Dipper’s mind was how the townspeople would react to seeing them. Of course they knew him and his sister but he wasn’t sure yet how he would introduce the third person with them.  
A distant cousin maybe? A friend from college? As a last resort they could pass him off as Mabel’s new boyfriend. Dipper grits his teeth at the thought and hoped they wouldn’t question his presence. He knew his mood wasn’t in general not the best but the lack of breakfast only added to that. If whatever Bill was going to show them was not something he could punch, he would be very disappointed.  
He hated how quickly Bill was managing to turn his desires from wanting to kiss him some more to slamming his head into a wall.  
The journals hadn’t been a gift and the shared intimacy merely a means to get more of his energy, all in all just another plot to open a portal and Dipper despised himself for falling for it.  
And now he was forced to drive him around town, probably just for gathering materials for said portal.

Just as he was about to plunge into another series of vengeful thoughts, they turned the corner and the first houses of the town came into view.  
Even though Gravity Falls had grown a little during the last decade, its overall appearance with neat house fronts and an assortment of small shops and restaurants hadn’t changed much. It had been quite a while since the twins had visited but the quiet main street and deserted pavement had never been part of the scenery.  
Something was wrong.

When Mabel gasped, Dipper stepped on the brakes and they screeched to a stop.  
The trunk of a car was blocking the road, its front end crashed into a shop window.  
Dipper recognized its plate number. It was the police car, that had shown up in the parking lot shortly after the accident. He had woken up too late to get a glimpse of the passengers but by the looks of it, they hadn’t come far. He got out of the cart and with weak knees followed his sister, bracing himself for the worst.  
When he was only a few paces away, he saw the inflated airbags on the steering wheel and dented front of the car where it had hit the wall. To his relief the car itself was empty and its interior look mostly intact. The door to the passenger side open so whoever had been in it, had made it out unharmed. Dipper let out the breath heh had been holding.

Glass scrunched under Dipper’s feet and his gaze trailed from the burst window over to Bill, who leaned against the cart and pretended not to notice.  
So that was where he had been.  
Dipper imagined him walking all the way back to the Shack, freezing, hurt, with glass in his feet and then extinguished the thought before it completely surface.  
Once more he looked at the destroyed shop window and tried to make sense of it. Was this what Bill had wanted to show them?

“Did you crash another car while you were out?” he asked only half joking.

Bill looked at him, full of indifference so Dipper walked over to the front of the car. There were pieces of clothing and several parts of a mannequin strewn around and he was glad he hadn’t seen them earlier. Detached body parts at the scene of an accident was something only Bill would find amusing.  
Dipper touched the hood and found the metal cold.  
So the crash must have happened some time ago. Maybe even on the day he had last seen the vehicle. Looking inside the shop, he saw it was empty but the lights were still on and there was even soft music playing in the background. It reminded him of the set of a horror movie or post apocalyptic blockbuster and he quickly stepped back, joining Mabel who had walked around the car and was now looking at the ground behind it.  
Before he could ask why she was so fascinated with bare asphalt, she pointed down.

“There are no skid marks.”

Dipper looked where she was pointing and was impressed with the observation.  
“So they crashed on purpose? Could have been a nightmare.”  
Mabel hummed, not quite convinced. “Perhaps.”

Dipper looked over his shoulder at Bill who was still watching them but was no longer leaning against the cart. He had wondered off to the other side of the road, waiting for them to get going. Meeting his gaze, he tilted his head.  
“Are you done?”

“What’s going on here, Bill?” Dipper called over to him. “Where is everyone?”

Bill shrugged then turned and strolled along the pavement.  
“I said I wanted to show you something. The interdimensional gaps are affecting everyone here, not just you.”

Dipper started to walk over to him to interrogate him more roughly.  
“What the hell happened to them?” he asked but the other didn’t seem to hear.  
He felt Mabel’s hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him and together they followed Bill along the deserted street.  
Better to save his energy for later, he thought and offered his sister a forced smile which she bravely returned.

“If you see anything weird, we’re out of here, okay?” he told her and she nodded eagerly.  
Then she yanked on his arm, pointing into the distance.

At the end of the street was a person.  
A woman in a blue dress. She was crossing the street without noticing them, head bowed, arms dangling at her sides. The way her legs moved, stiff and unsure, made her look like she was either very old or intoxicated. Either way, there was definitely something wrong with her.

Mabel took a breath to call out to her but a stern glance from Bill prevented it. They watched her scuff to the other side and disappear from their view.  
Bill gestured them to keep moving and they followed him reluctantly, tearing their eyes away from the spot where the woman had vanished.

Bill told the twins to be quiet and neither of them felt like disobeying. They walked in silence, even setting their feet down as quietly as possible, now carefully watching for any movement. Their gaze wandered along the shops and empty windows.  
There were plates and cups still on the table of a coffee shop, cars parked in front of the post office and children’s toys scattered across front yards. The whole town looked like everyone had left in a hurry or just disappeared from where they had stood.

A distant thud made them jump.  
Even Bill stopped for a moment to listen. After a while they could make out other sounds and the closer they came to the corner ahead of them, the more distinct they became. There was the clatter of cutlery and scraping of chairs and overall it sounded like the typical noise of a restaurants. Dipper didn’t know if he should feel relieved or concerned then opted for the latter.

Again he had a strange feeling and when he realized what felt off, he retreated closer to the nearby wall and grabbed the hem of Bill’s hoodie to stop him. To his surprise the other didn’t protest but let himself be pulled back without resistance.  
There were no voices.  
Where there should have been chatter and laughter or at least a low murmur, was only silence. It made Dipper’s hair stand on end. He shot Bill a questioning look and earned a knowing glance.  
At least one of them knew what was going on here.

Dipper detached himself from Mabel and peered around the corner.  
Lazy Susan’s diner looked like it always had. Since her niece was helping out and had shown interest in taking over the business when her aunt was going to retire in a few years, the place had become pretty popular. She was a sweet and pretty girl and the first person Dipper spotted when he looked through the large windows.  
At first glance she wasn’t acting out of the ordinary as she was pouring coffee for a customer like she always had. Then the cup overflowed and a puddle began to form on the table, spilling over the edge and dripping onto the floor. She didn’t seem to care, or even notice and only stopped tilting the pot when it was already half empty.  
The customer in front of her was completely oblivious to the mess as well. He kept reading his paper, not looking up but not turning the pages either. It would have been comical, hadn’t all the other guests behave the same way.

An elderly lady was sitting by herself, turning the sugar dispenser in her hands, a young couple was staring at the waffles in front of them without any intent of actually eating them. Others who did manage to eat, did it so slowly, they looked like they had just learned how to properly hold cutlery. It was so bizarre to look at, Dipper had to make sure several times that he wasn’t being dragged into another nightmare.

“What’s wrong with them?” Mabel asked after having snuck up next to her brother to look.  
He was about to tell her that he didn’t know, that she should ask Bill, but then the man staring at the newspaper turned his head and looked directly at him.  
Or rather into their direction, because his eyes remained unfocused and disinterested.

Suddenly the dots connected in his head and the words died in his throat.

“What?”  
Mabel nudged him, concerned about his behavior.

Dipper couldn’t answer. A conversation with Bill replayed in his mind and everything became clear. This was what he had wanted to show them.

“Now you know what the nightmares can do,” Bill said, correctly reading Dipper’s expression.

Mabel looked between them.  
“Nightmares?” she asked and scanned the houses and shops around them as if expecting to see one. “What’s going on?”

When Dipper realized Bill wasn’t going to reply, he sighed and pointed to the customers in the diner. The man had put down the newspaper, soaking it in coffee, his lifeless eyes now on the wall.

“They’re sleepwalking.”


	39. XXXIX

“Sleep walking,” Mabel repeated quietly to herself and Dipper saw her expression change as the words sunk in. She looked over at the glass panels once more and her chest moved as her breath quickened.

“Are they dangerous?”

“No,” Bill said, then a bit less confident “I don’t think so. Their consciousness is trapped by nightmares so they’re only capable of basic tasks. Walking, eating, breathing. Like that they can be kept alive for quite some time while they feed on their energy.”

Just like what you do to us, Dipper wanted to add but he knew that now wasn’t the time to be salty about it. As long as he wasn’t behaving like the people in the diner, he shouldn’t be complaining.

“Those poor things,” Mabel said. “How long have they been like this?”

Bill shrugged, “I saw them last night for the first time. A day? Maybe two? It explains why one of the nightmares was able to break through the barrier around the shack and attack us.”

Mabel swallowed audibly. “And that’s why you need to go back, right? You can stop this. That’s what you need the portal for.”

“Yes, that’s what I’ve been telling you,” Bill almost sighed, partly relieved and exasperated. “We wouldn’t even need any physical materials to build it,” he continued. “I just have to create a gap where the dimensional barrier is weak. All I need is three seals and some energy.”

“So why didn’t you do that already?” Dipper growled. “Why did you bring us here? It’s not like you need our approval.”

Bill held his gaze.  
“I still need your help. Believe me, if I could force you, I would have already done it.”

Dipper scoffed but before he could say anything else, Bill had turned his back to him and was making his way into a side street. The twins were reluctant to follow, still watching the small crowd in the diner suspiciously. Only when Bill walked past the windows and not a single head turned or glance was thrown his way, did they leave the safe spot by the corner.  
They caught up with him when he reached the supermarket on the other side of the street. While crossing the small parking lot, something caught Dipper’s eye and he walked over to a parked car.

Behind it, leaning against a garbage bin, sat a teenager. His head was hanging low on his shoulders and the ashes of a cigarette lay by his hand, its end between his fingers. He looked younger than Dipper himself and judging by the fiery red hair hanging into his face, it had to be one of Wendy’s brothers. Dipper barely had time to register more than that before Mabel had rushed to his side, putting a hand over the side of his throat. The movement caused his head to loll to one side ends Dipper was met with a blank stare. His stomach gave a violent twist and he quickly looked away.

“It’s okay,” Mabel breathed. “He’s alive.” She sank back with a relieved sigh.

Dipper studied him closer and noticed the faint rise and fall of his chest. He could have been sleeping peacefully if it hadn’t been for those strange open eyes. Dipper thought about closing them, so he wouldn’t have to endure his dead stare, but that would have a very morbid meaning.

“‘Get away from him!”  
Bill’s voice made them reel back. The boy on the floor hadn’t moved or looked in any way threatening but with Bills sharp words they were suddenly afraid of him. Despite that Mabel took a breath, reached out and shook his shoulder.

“Hey, wake up! Are you alright?”

His body remained motionless, muscles limp and unable to keep himself upright. Mabel had to grab both his shoulders to keep him in a sitting position.

“Shooting Star!” Bill warned again and this time she reluctantly stepped away. “We don’t have time for this!”  
Dipper pulled her up and along when she kept looking back at the boy on the ground and he wondered why exactly they had to hurry.

“Is he okay?” Mabel asked as they were approaching the entrance.

“Of course,” Billy said sternly and without looking at her. “He’s just sleeping.”

“Aren’t they all?” Dipper asked and in Bill’s face he saw something that scared him even more than the boy’s creepy eyes.  
It was genuine fear.  
The expression vanished before he could find a reason for it but it had been there and if Bill was getting worried, they really shouldn’t be wasting any more time.

“Let’s get this over with,” Dipper said and stepped towards the entrance, the doors sliding open for him.

Whatever had caused this situation must have happened during the day and with the electricity and everything still working, chances were high it was limited to the town. At least for now.  
Who knew you how long Ford’s equation could withstand the nightmares if they had already overcome Bills seal once.

The supermarket was empty, except for a vacant-eyed girl by the register, who was counting the same handful of coins over and over. Mabel snatched a basket and headed for the fruit and vegetable section. The distinct, sickly-sweet smell and a swarm of flies told Dipper she wouldn’t be having much luck there. Initially he had wanted to accompany her but there were a couple of burning questions he wanted answered. As they entered a different aisle full of canned food, he waited until they were out of earshot then grabbed Bill’s shoulder.

“What’s really happened to him?” he asked, careful not to trip over the various items on the floor. A bottle had shattered and sweet, sticky goo had formed a puddle in the center of the aisle. Bill had to stop to not step into it and was forced to face him.

“He’s sleeping,” he repeated but Dipper was not convinced.

Bill saw it and sighed. Despite the fact they were almost completely alone and the sound of the air conditioning and quiet music, he dropped his voice.  
“Remember when I told you about the deer in the woods? The ones the nightmares got?”

Dipper couldn’t believe Bill was not ignoring his question like he did so often, so he only stared and nodded.

“Well, that’s what’s happening here. Their minds are held captive and with no dimensional barrier between this world and the nightmares, they can’t wake up.”

Dipper let his eyes wander over the rows of disorganized shelves. People without consciousness really had poor motor skills.

“Will they stay like this?” he asked, a knot forming in his throat.

“Not if you help me get back,” Bill said with a faint grin and Dipper wanted to slap him.

“Yes, thanks, we get it,” he groaned and was about to turn when he remembered something. 

“You told me, nightmares can extract energy,” he said and Bill’s expression hardened. “What if they take too much? All of it?”

A moment passed when he thought Bill wouldn’t reply because the answer was so obvious but then he .  
“First they lose their ability to move,” he said. “Then their senses shut down completely. They don’t know what’s real anymore and after a while they can’t remember either. They’re left with their rawest emotions and instincts, their mind as their only reality.”

When Dipper involuntarily imagined that, it somehow began to feel familiar.

“I think it’s what you call sleep paralysis,” Bill confirmed and the chill that ran along Dipper’s back made him shudder. The look on the boy’s face outside wouldn’t leave his mind and he wished he had never seen it.

“It will happen to all of them sooner or later,” Bill continued nonchalantly as if comparing prices on the canned peaches he was standing in front of.  
Dipper hated when he used that tone. He knew Bill had no reason to care but talking like that made it difficult not to think it was somehow his fault.

“What if it happens to me?”  
The words were out before Dipper even knew what they implied.

“What if the nightmares get us before you can get back to the mindscape?”  
This time he made sure to include his sister in the question so it didn’t sound like he was asking if the other cared about him.  
Bill’s gaze wavered but the reason wasn’t imminent.

“That won’t happen,” he said quietly, looking at something on Dipper’s shoulder, avoiding his gaze.

“Very reassuring,” Dipper sneered. “I’m feeling safer already.”

“Shut up,” Bill snapped and the force of his voice made Dipper flinch.  
“I know it must be very difficult for your tiny human brain to process this but I’ve been doing all I can to protect you,” he hissed, struggling not to raise his volume above a whisper.

“Oh, really?” Dipper asked, eyebrows raised. “Must have missed that. All you do, is push me and my sister into fights with invisible monsters, constantly threaten our lives and repeatedly steal our life force. Doesn’t sound much like protecting, if you ask me.”

Judging by the look in Bill’s eyes Dipper thought he would now start to throw cans at him. The heaviest he could find. In spite of that, his voice was surprisingly calm.

“So this is what’s bothering you?” he asked and when he stepped closer, Dipper tried not to wince.  
“I brought you here to see this,” Bill explained with a sweeping motion of his hand. “So you could see how dangerous all this really is. It’s true, that I rely on you to fight the nightmares but without me you would look like the boy outside in a matter of minutes.”

Dipper swallowed but held his gaze.

“Haven’t you realized that you were not having nightmares anymore?” Bill continued, catching him off guard. Dipper had had no time to think about that.

“That’s because you weren’t having any dreams at all! My energy is not only what keeps the nightmares away from the house but also out of your head. I can’t do this all by myself so yes, I may have snuck some of your life force occasionally.”  
He turned his head to the side.  
“I used it to heal you and Shooting Star, I was creating seals and closing rifts with it and I helped you fight the nightmares.  
I really was protecting you,” he finished and Dipper heard the singular in the last sentence clearly.

It made saying the next words a lot more difficult.  
“But in the end you’ll be using us for the portal, won’t you?”  
He could see a flicker of emotion cross his face he hadn’t known he was even capable of. “With our luck, we’ll end up like him either way,” Dipper said and pointed towards the parking lot.

“You thought I was talking about you?” Bill asked as if suddenly realizing something. “You thought I was going to…” He struggled for words. “… sacrifice you to power the portal?”

“Don’t pretend otherwise,” Dipper growled but he sounded unsure.  
The atmosphere around them had suddenly changed.  
“You said yesterday-…” He cleared his throat. “You said I was giving off energy.”

Maybe the air condition had stopped working. All of a sudden it was very warm where he stood. To his demise, the other chuckled and it was the last sound he had expected.  
“You do,” Bill said, a glint in his eyes. “But not nearly enough to provide for tearing down dimensional walls, sorry.”

He laughed some more and there was mocking but also relief in it. It made Dipper grab a fistful of his hoodie and yank on it roughly. Bill almost lost his balance, avoiding a stray can at his feet. He made a choking sound, pulling the collar away from his throat.

“Look, Pine Tree, I’m not happy about all this either but now is not a good time to let out your frustrations on me, okay?”

Dipper felt the nagging urge to push him into the sticky puddle but he knew Bill was right. They could argue later.

“If it’s any consolation,” he added when Dipper had loosened his grip. “I’m not using any of that energy.”

Dipper scoffed. “Well, I rather not see it go to waste then.”  
He hadn’t known he was still capable of making jokes but the sudden silence between them told him it hadn’t really come across as one.

“It doesn’t,” Bill said after a while and smoothed over the spot where Dipper’s fingers had pulled at the fabric.  
“It’s not helping much,” he stated with a small grin and before he could be interrupted “but it feels nice... Just another human thing, right?”

Dipper began to get uncomfortable standing so close to Bill but had no real urge to escape the situation either.  
He wasn’t blocking Bill’s way any longer so why hadn’t he moved?

Their proximity was different from last night, where darkness and exhaustion had shielded them from the reality inescapable in daylight. There was an unspoken question, lingering between them and no room to avoid an answer. If what had happened between them only a few hours ago hadn’t meant anything, Dipper knew he just had to move aside and walk away and it would never be mentioned again.  
But then the chance of repeating anything like that ever again, would disappear with it. However, this was not something Dipper could decide rationally. All he was aware of, was, that Bill was giving him an opportunity and the options to take or leave it, both with uncertain consequences. He couldn’t know how Bill was going to react to either of those choices but due to lack of a third option or the possibility to postpone all that to a later time when he had had time to think properly, he was forced to act.  
There was a chance they would soon be sharing the fate of the townspeople anyway and then whatever he was about to do now, wouldn’t matter in the slightest. So for once he opted for something he knew his common sense was not agreeing with, hadn’t his mind been occupied by the sight of Bill looking intently at him.  
He was patiently waiting for a reaction and Dipper had some time to take in the stern look on his face, the way his collarbones moved when he breathed and the almost tangible tension radiating off his body. If anything, he looked more vulnerable than he had ever before and somehow Dipper wished he could preserve that moment and that look just a little longer.

Then he moved as if to push the other aside, his hand on Bill’s shoulder and he couldn’t deny a brief sense of satisfaction when he noticed a short moment of disappointment in the other’s eyes before Bill realized it and dropped his gaze. Before he took the step necessary to widen the distance between them, Dipper leaned close and pressed his lips to the corner of Bill’s mouth.

He felt the shoulder beneath his palm go rigid but could tell it stemmed from surprise rather than discomfort. Bill had clearly not expected this and Dipper enjoyed having caught him off guard. But not as much as when he turned his head towards him to respond.  
Dipper allowed it, but only for a second before he broke the contact. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to stop if they started anything now and in addition to making out in an empty supermarket in the center of the town inhabited by creepy almost-zombies, he didn’t want to be caught by Mabel who was already having more than one question regarding both of them.

He didn’t wait to see if Bill was thinking the same but drew back and without turning around, started walking along the aisle, searching the shelves of cans for easy to prepare meals among the rows of pickled vegetables.  
It was, admittedly, a little difficult to concentrate after what he had just done. He would still need a bit more time to wrap his head around their new situation.  
Not that there was any situation to begin with, of course.

Dipper was just about to pick up a few cans of soup when Bill was suddenly next to him again. The usual jolt at the invasion of his personal space was missing but he had no time to ponder that. Bill yanked his arm and pulled him along to the other end of the corridor and to the back of the store, ignoring his protests. Dipper almost tripped and the two cans he had been holding slipped from his hold as he tried not to crash to the floor, his arm locked in a merciless grip. They clattered to the floor, the sound loud and hollow in the empty supermarket.

“Dipper, you okay?”

Mabel voice made him tear his arm free. 

“What’re you doing?” Dipper snapped at Bill, trying to make his way over to his sister but the demon held onto his sweater.  
“Be quiet!” Bill snarled and the tone of his voice startles him.

“What is it?” he asked alarmed and looked around. He didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.

Then Mabel screamed and Dipper did not want to wait for Bill’s answer.

He shook off his hands, and bolted to the opposite side of the store. He didn’t catch what Bill was yelling after him and he didn’t find it in himself to care either.

“Mabel?!” he called and suddenly there was a hand over his mouth. Before he had time to push it away, a hard kick knocked his legs out from under him. He hit the floor and sharp pain raced through his body. His groan was muffled by the offending hands and he was grabbed around the shoulders and forcefully pushed backwards.  
Lashing out, he tried to free himself from Bill who was practically dragging him across the floor. Dipper’s feet found no hold on the smooth tiles so he threw his weight against the other, grabbing a fistful of his clothes and pulled him to the ground with him.

Bill landed on the floor, cursing but still trying to hold him back.  
Dipper was about to shove him off and run to his sister hadn’t Bill thrown his arms around his neck, making his back hit a shelf. For a second he was afraid he was going to choke him but even though his hold on him was firm and keeping him from getting up, it was also unexpectedly gentle.

“Don’t!” Bill hissed into his ear. “She’s going to be fine.”

Dipper’s pulse spiked and he tightened his grip on the other’s shirt.  
“What happened?” he asked, close to panicking but unintentionally dropping his voice to a whisper as well.  
He didn’t know why he thought Bill had an answer to that when they had been together the entire time but he felt he somehow knew what had caused Mabel fearful reaction. Dipper strained his ears but couldn’t hear anything besides the quiet hum of the freezers and the sound of his own rapid breaths.

“Bill?” he tried again and the arms around him shifted as Bill moved to look behind the shelf they were hiding behind.  
Hiding from what? He wasn’t able to feel the now familiar sensation of an approaching nightmare but then why couldn’t he go to his sister? There was suspicion sinking into him that Bill wasn’t protecting him from anything at all and the high walls and shelves began to feel more and more like a trap.

He pushed against Bill’s chest but the other only budget a little, Dipper’s legs still secured firmly under his weight. His head was turned away as if he was listening for something. Or feeling for it. After all, his senses were capable of detecting flows of energy or disturbances in the dimensional walls. Whatever it was, Bill couldn’t hide that it worried him.  
Dipper tugged at his clothes again, trying to get an explanation or at least his attention so he could guess what was going on but Bill ignored him and he was getting impatient. He intended to call for Mabel once more but then his ears picked up a distant sound outside the store. Footsteps? Was that why Mabel had screamed? Had she seen someone? Or something?

Dipper squirmed, trying to turn towards the source of the sound but he was too far away from the front doors.

“Stay here,” Bill whispered, slowly lifting himself off the ground when he was sure Dipper wouldn’t run off.

“I’m coming with you,” he stated, not releasing his hold on the front of Bill’s hoodie.

“No, you’re not!” Bill hissed. “I’m getting Shooting Star and we leave, understand?”

Bill glared at him but there was a good portion of worry in his eyes that kept Dipper’s aggression against him at bay. The footsteps had become louder, sounding right outside the doors and there were definitely more than one pair. Suddenly Bill grabbed Dipper’s wrist so painfully that his fingers released him.

“If you don’t stay down, I’ll make you,” he threatened and dug his nails into the skin of his arm.

Dipper suppressed any unwanted response to this treatment but couldn’t help the stinging in his chest. It was difficult to see that this was the same person he had exchanged affections with only minutes ago.

“I’d like to see you try,” he said calmly and Bill’s eyebrows drew together. He was regarding him with a serious look that Dipper couldn’t place.

“You wouldn’t hurt me,” Dipper whispered, pulling his arm free and getting ready to fight should the other decide to become even more aggressive. “You need me.”

For a brief moment Bill seemed concerned rather than angry and that didn’t fit at all. Then his face changed back to his usual scowl and Dipper’s body tensed in anticipation. He was going to shove Bill, get up and away from him as quickly as possible and run for Mabel. Only then would he think about what to do next.

Maybe it was a breath he took or a twitch of a muscle that gave away his intentions but the next second Bill had flung himself forward. Dipper gasped when his weight landed on him and his back and shoulders hit the sharp edges of the board behind him.  
He closed his eyes and saw stars when the back of his head followed. Throwing up his hands blindly, his fingers found Bill, trying to push you off.

Suddenly his voice was next to his ear, steady and cold.  
“You’re right,” he whispered, almost too quiet to hear. “I do need you, Pine Tree. But only for your life force.”

Dipper swallowed at the words. He wanted to move away but his limbs wouldn’t cooperate. His brain was foggy, thoughts slow. Probably from hitting his head.

“Luckily there’s an easy way to separate it from you,” Bill continued, almost soothingly. “Then I wouldn’t be so dependent anymore. Isn’t that what you want?”

Dipper had no time to answer or ask further questions.  
Sharp, stinging pain bore into his stomach, spreading like fire through his entire body.  
He would’ve screamed but there was no air in his lungs. The muscles in his abdomen constricted, his chest tightened to the point of suffocation and the agonizing pain drowned out all other senses.  
There was heat and cold coiling in his guts and an ever present paralyzing pressure. Every movement, even involuntary ones, sent spikes of boiling heat along his nerves. His vision was blurry with tears but when he looked down, saw Bill’s fist pressed against his belly.  
But a simple punch couldn’t possibly hurt this much.

Then the fingers moved slightly and with bulging eyes, Dipper glimpsed the blade of a knife, slick and red protruding from his body.

When Bill pulled it out excruciatingly slowly, Dipper was close to throwing up but he couldn’t look away either. Even in his condition, his mind numb with shock, he recognized the knife as the one Bill had used to threaten him back at the Shack and wondered how he had taken it with him unnoticed.

He remembered the other’s hand on his abdomen as he talked about slicing into his guts and how that was the most painful way to die. Back then he couldn’t have known that he was about to experience it for himself and it was nothing short of his imagination.  
He should have known that it would eventually end like this. The front of his clothes were already drenched and clinging to his skin and he felt warm liquid drip along his sides, to his back and spread across the floor. His fingers had turned cold and his head was feeling unusually light.  
How much blood did he have to lose before unconsciousness was going to relieve him from this agony?

His breath was coming in shallow gasps and he was losing feeling in his legs. Through a haze he realized he was looking up at Bill, whose grasp on his shoulder was the only thing rooting him to consciousness. Dipper’s throat moved in an attempt to ask something and the taste of metal flooded his mouth. Bill answered him but he couldn’t comprehend a single word. Their meaning, the sound of Bill's voice - strangely calming - , his senses, were slowly sliding away.

Bill let go of him and Dipper tried to guess how much energy he would gain from killing him. Enough to get back? Despite everything, he couldn’t find the strength to be angry. It was his own fault, after all, for getting so close.  
For allowing him to kiss him. And for kissing him back. It had been incredibly foolish to belief for only a second that it had meant anything. That it had been more than incidental physical contact. And now he was paying for his mistakes.

He didn’t know if he had closed his eyes or his vision began to fail completely but when he heard Mabel’s voice, a small part of his surroundings came into focus once more.  
She was screaming again. A distant sound, piercing through his clouded consciousness and shaking him to the core.

The pain in his stomach and legs had ebbed to a pulsing pressure but the nausea and tremor of his limbs told him that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Pushing himself up on shaky legs, he held onto the shelf and waited for the dizziness to pass. Carefully taking a step, he forced himself not to look down or slip in the puddle of blood on the floor. He was so very close to passing out. A wrong move would seal his fate.

After another step, the movements of his muscles began to come more easily and after making his way around the corner, even found the strength to stand with minimal support. Clutching his midsection, he successfully ignored the sticky warmth on his skin and ordered his legs to keep moving. A sharp jolt made him wince and stagger but did not disrupt him for long.  
It was one thing to injure him, another to hurt his sister. And he was going to stop Bill from doing exactly that, even if it was literally the last thing he would do.

As quietly as possible, biting back all sounds, he managed to make it over to the aisle undetected. Although his burning lungs craved air, he held his breath and peered around a large display. When his eyes had adjusted he saw a heap on the floor and it took him a second to recognize it as Mabel, arms around her knees with Bill kneeling beside her. There was no blood or sign of a weapon but that didn’t put her out of danger just yet.  
When Bill reached out to touch her, his slowly developing plan of sneaking up behind him, was instantly discarded and Dipper pushed away from the wall and leapt forward.

His entire body exploded with pain when he collided with Bill, knocking him over. With pure willpower he pinned him to the floor, fingers digging into his flesh. Bill thrashed underneath him, kicking and baring his teeth. It was like holding down a rabid animal.  
Dipper was almost thrown off when suddenly he stopped. He felt his struggling subside, the hands that had pushed against his chest, fall aside, the other’s voice turning from snarling to a calm whisper. Still, he couldn’t understand the words directed at him. For a second that made him hesitate but when he saw Bill’s hand reach for him, panic rose.  
Without thinking Dipper brought down his fist.

Bill’s head snapped to the side, his teeth clashing. When he turned back his eyes were wide, mouth dripping with blood. Dipper didn’t wait for his response. He pushed away and, not having the strength to get up, crawled over to Mabel on all fours, shielding her with his body in case Bill decided to attack.

He could no longer feel any pain. All that mattered now was keeping his sister safe. By now his vision had cleared considerably and to his relief he couldn’t detect any apparent injuries on Mabel. Speaking her name softly, he gently placed a hand on her back and she looked up. For a fearful moment she didn’t seem to recognize him and Dipper remember it as the same expression from when they had found her in the middle of the road, trapped in a nightmare.  
She blinked and it was gone. Disorientation replaced it and now it was evident why she had been screaming.

“It’s okay,” Dipper said, glancing back at Bill to make sure he wouldn’t come closer and wrapped his arm around her protectively.  
“It was just a nightmare.”

A warm fondness spread in his chest, recalling all the times she had said and done the same to him. She leaned into his hug and Dipper hoped she wouldn’t notice the condition he was in. He was racking his brain for the best way to get her to safety and leave him behind when time seemed to stop.

As he looked down on himself to evaluate the damage the knife had caused, he found no evidence of it. His clothes were clean and there was not a single trace of injury when he lifted his sweater to make sure. There was blood on the back of his hand, however, but this, Dipper realized with a sinking feeling, was real. And not the product of the nightmare.  
With a racing heart, he turned to face Bill who was wiping at the split lip and avoided direct eye contact.

“Shit! Bill, I’m-…,” Dipper started with a broken voice but his apology was interrupted when the doors to the store slid open.

At least the footsteps he hadn’t imagined.

From across the aisle he recognized the woman in the blue dress and the man with the newspaper from earlier. They were as vacant-eyed and maneuvering as clumsily as before but something about their posture had changed. They looked determined, moving with a purpose.  
Behind them more of the townspeople had appeared. Among them he spotted the bright red hair of Wendy’s brother.  
They were slowly moving into their direction and Dipper didn’t think they were coming here to shop.

Slowly shuffling inside, they were now blocking the exit. At first Dipper didn’t feel threatened. After all, he had seen how incapable they were but when all their heads turned at the same time and their mindless eyes fixed on them, he felt cold spread in his guts.  
They were helpless and uncoordinated but numerous and now clearly controlled by something. It made Dipper shudder. The store was too small to hide from them but he didn’t want to fight either. Not that they could. Even without any outside influence they wouldn’t stand a chance against dozens of strong hands and heavy bodies.  
Dipper turned to Bill for help but he looked as frightened as he himself felt. He heard Mabel whisper his name as she clutched his arm. The sleepwalkers kept walking and were now halfway across the aisle, without a doubt coming for them.

A woman knocked over a basket as she walked by and two teenage boys almost tripped over the contents but neither stopped them for long. They were mercilessly coming closer and the stream of people that followed them didn’t seem to end. Where Dipper had suspected maybe the people from the diner, now were over a hundred others.  
Apparently the whole town had been trapped and was now ordered here to apprehend the ones who had escaped the nightmares until now.

Dipper swallowed hard.  
This time the danger was real and no amount of positive thinking or acts of bravery could save them. If intentional or not, Bill had lured them into a trap and he was no longer sorry for punching him.

Dipper pulled Mabel close and shut his eyes when the first pair of hands began reaching for him.


	40. XL

There was a tug on his sleeve. He had expected a firmer grip and shook it off easily. But as soon as it was gone it was followed by a hand on his shoulder and when he pushed that way too, another replaced it, followed by long fingers on his collar and the hem of his pants. More and more joined them and once they had gotten a hold, wouldn’t let go easily. They dug their nails into his clothes, grabbed at his arms and ankles and pulled at his legs.

After a moment he could no longer count how many hands were on him and he had to let go of Mabel to fend them off. Until now he had managed to keep them away from his sister but then a particularly strong man grabbed him and pulled him towards him. Dipper lashed out, hitting limbs and outstretched fingers and struggled to get back to her.

“Mabel!” he yelled, warning her in time about a woman trying to get a hold of her leg. She kicked at her but the woman hesitated for only a second before reaching for her once more. Dipper tried to get to her and groaned when an arm wrapped around his neck. He couldn’t pull it off, his own where held tight by half a dozen hands. What the sleepwalkers lacked in strength and speed, they made up with sheer number. 

Dipper fought but was mercilessly pushed and pulled around, drowning in a mass of mindless bodies. Even if at first he had been reluctant to actually hurt any of them, he was now scratching and kicking without restraint and hitting everything in his reach. The amount of bodies, however, made it almost impossible to move and with a jolt he realized he was being dragged along the floor and away from Mabel.

He heard her calling for him but he couldn’t answer. The arm around his throat and his own weight were choking him. His elbow landed in someone's stomach and one of his kicks found its target but as soon as one hand had let go of him, three more seem to appear. They clung to his clothes, held down his legs, pulled at his hair. His muscles had begun to burn with exertion and his strength was slowly leaving him. Among the endless rows of faces - some of them faintly familiar - he tried to find a way of escape. He lunged for a shelf, hoping to get a grip on the board or at least something heavy to use as a weapon but he couldn’t even start the movement. The weight of the sleepwalkers was threatening to crush him.

He felt the nightmare moving in again and struggled desperately to fend it off. It felt like falling asleep and he was unable to fight it. What had been hands and fingers turned into jaws and teeth. His skin was ripped open, arms and legs twisted to almost impossible angles. Ribs cracked under the weight of flesh, piercing his lungs, the taste of blood flooding his mouth. He knew it wasn’t real but the pain numbed his brain and he felt himself slip further away from consciousness.

The thought of Mabel who was probably experiencing the same, was the only thing keeping him from passing out. And somehow at the back of his mind he thought of Bill and wondered if he had similar problems. After apologizing for hurting him earlier, he would punch him again for bringing them here. If they ever made it out of here, that was. He realized that thinking about this, eased the pain a little and his grasp on reality became clearer. When he was worried more about the others than himself, he found the nightmare couldn’t scare him.

That didn’t mean, however, that the sleepwalkers were retreating as well and Dipper was still clutched tightly by the mindless mob. He was running out of strength rapidly now and if there was nobody to save them, he would soon join them permanently.

Suddenly there was a rush of heat racing across his body and he instinctively closed his eyes. When he opened them, there were fewer sleepwalkers holding him and all the pain was gone. Just as he was looking around for what had caused that weird sensation, another wave hit him and knocked the air out of his lungs. It was a powerful force but not entirely unpleasant. Dipper pulled free one of his legs and kicked aimlessly until more hands had released him. He had just freed one of his arms when he had Mabel’s and Bill’s voices from across the store. That gave him the strength he needed to push the last few hands away and he scrambled to his feet and broke into a run before they could grab him again.

He pushed a man out of the way who was still wearing his bathrobe, narrowly escaping the grasp of an old woman with a walking stick and stepped over two young boys who reached for him with clumsy fingers. One of the last people blocking his way was the cashier girl they had seen when entering the supermarket and she looked more determined than the rest. Her hands formed claws and she spread them across the aisle, making a direct confrontation inevitable. Dipper was just about to come up with a plan to knock her over without hurting her when another wave hit.

Now with no bodies in between, it seemed to race directly through him. It felt like all the pressure had left the air only to come back tenfold. Gasping for breath, he tumbled back, barely staying on his aching feet. His skin tingled with the strange feeling, the hair on his arms standing on end. The girl in front of him looked like she had a similar experience.  
Her stance had loosened considerably and instead of aggressive she seemed lost and confused. She blinked stupidly and Dipper glimpsed a trace of consciousness before her eyes glazed over again and she lunged for him. Dipper leapt aside, evading her sharp fingernails, ducked under the arms of a bulky guy and finally spotted Mabel among a group of middle-aged women. He got ready to pushed him aside forcefully when a burst of pressure threw him backwards and almost knocked Dipper to the ground with him.

Unsuccessfully shielding his eyes against the strange heat, he kept his balance but needed a moment to breathe normally again. He felt like his heart was beating too fast in his chest and his nerves were singing, trying and failing to transmit a sense outside of their comprehension.  
Lowering his arm, he found himself face to face with Bill.

The right side of his face was smeared with blood, strands of hair clinging to his cheek and his expression was anything but friendly. He was holding out his hand, palms facing Dipper, as if gesturing him to halt. When he recognized him, he quickly dropped it but Dipper had already seen the reddened skin around his fingertips. He spotted Mabel right behind him, mostly unharmed except for a scratch across her collarbone. She was holding onto Bill’s shoulder.

Dipper was halfway through a question when a large hand grabbed his ankle and brought him to his knees. Mabel yelled something and Bill answered but Dipper only felt the blinding pain shooting through his leg as his knee hit the floor. From the corner of his eyes he saw Bill step over to him and lift his hand and when another wave raced over his head, the rough fingers gripping his foot were ripped away, the man toppling back with a series of grunts and curses.

Mabel helped him up, asking ten questions at once but Dipper wasn’t listening. His eyes were fixed onto Bill’s hand. The air around his fingers was shimmering with heat and the last flicker of bright blue flames danced on his skin.  
Dipper feared Bill would direct it at him and braced for another shockwave but the other didn’t even spare him a glance. Taking a step forward, he now stood between the twins and the growing horde of sleepwalkers, who were continuously coming closer as they bumped into and shoved each other. Their expressions were blank, their eyes half-lidded and staring into space. There only was the sound of their breathing and the occasional sigh but Dipper couldn’t help but think they had walked right into a zombie apocalypse.

Mabel said something and after pulling on his arm, Dipper comprehended that she wanted him to stand. He felt he still hadn’t fully grasped the situation but he was glad to have escaped the clutching hands and pull of the nightmare. Mabel seemed to be okay and on top of things and they had a very efficient weapon to fend off the sleepwalkers.  
Even if it came in the form of a demon, blasting fire from his bare hands.

The only thing he was sure of was that there was not time to question any of that. Mabel put her hand on Bill’s shoulder once more and gestured Dipper to do the same. He complied reluctantly and placed his palm tentatively just above the other’s shoulder blade, all the while expecting him to recoil at the touch but Bill didn’t even seem to be aware of it.  
He looked over at Mabel for instructions. She gave a determined nod and took his free hand, holding it firmly. The first of the sleepwalkers - the large man who had yanked Dipper to the floor earlier - was only an arm's length away from touching Bill. Just when he was about to come in contact with his outstretched hand, blue lights flashed around his palm and blinded him. At the same time a strange sensation developed in Dipper’s body.  
All his muscles locked and for a second he was afraid he couldn’t move. It was gone almost as soon as it had started and left a sense of cold and heaviness in his guts. Dipper forced himself to keep breathing and when he looked up, saw the mass of bodies before them tumbling backwards, tripping over each other’s limbs and gasping for breath.

He noticed some of them were looking around in confusion before hanging their heads and moving towards them again. He could see that whatever Bill was doing to them wasn’t really hurting them.  
It was waking them up.

But it was obvious that the nightmare quickly regained its control over them and there was no way they could defend themselves like this for long.

Bill was breathing heavily and the tips of his fingers had turned from slightly reddened to burnt and blistered. He wouldn’t be able to pull that stunt very often, he thought. They would have to make a run for it, Dipper realized. But even with this newly discovered ability they wouldn’t be able to disrupt the crowd of sleepwalkers long enough to make it through to the exit.

Dipper’s thoughts stumbled on the last word. A large store like this had to have more than one way to get out. He searched the walls around them for an emergency exit sign and his gaze found the door to the storage room next to the ovens. Squeezing Mabel’s hand and pulling on Bill’s shoulder, he got both their attention and with a nod of his head directed it to the only hope of escape. Mabel was the first understand and began to move towards it, pulling Dipper along. Bill kept his eyes on the first row of sleepwalkers, who were too stubborn or stupid to give up and were already shuffling forward again, then quickly followed them to the back of the store. 

Dipper’s heart leapt with joy and relief when he saw the door hanging open. Mabel must’ve seen it too and they both broke into a run. Dipper already imagined himself throwing the door open and shutting it behind them when a movement in his peripheral vision caught his eye. A second crowd of sleepwalkers had detached themselves from the unruly mass down in the aisle and had positioned themselves here, most likely planning on ambushing them from behind. So their actions hadn’t been purely random after all, the constant attacks in the aisle merely a distraction.

Dipper pulled Mabel to a stop right on time before the sea of grasping hands and lunging limbs got a hold of her. Bristling with adrenaline, Dipper realized they had begun to block the door and the only way out. And now they couldn’t go back either. The first group was now occupying the aisle completely and would soon be merging with the second and then they were cornered.

“Down!” Bill yelled and without thinking the twins threw themselves to the ground simultaneously as a blast of heat narrowly missed them. Dipper used the momentary confusion that broke out among the crowd and ran for the door. It burst open with a loud metallic thud and light spilled across the dark floor beyond. Mabel followed closely behind him and grabbed the handle of the door to quickly close it again.

“Bill!” Dipper yelled and held out his hand to the other, who had just fired another blast at the approaching sleepwalkers. Bill turned and reached for him, letting himself be pulled to safety and Mabel shut the door behind him. The sudden darkness pressed like a weight onto their eyes. Dipper waited for his vision to adjust and prayed he hadn’t sealed their fate by trapping them here.

As soon as high shelves and numerous boxes began to take shape, he spotted the green exit sign illuminating a small door. He almost cheered hadn’t the loud bang on the door made him whip his head around. Bill slammed his shoulders against it, helping Mabel with keeping it closed. It was futile. They couldn’t possibly hold back the mass of people on the other side.   
But maybe they could outrun them.  
Dipper noticed a large crate with water and juice bottles stacked on top of each other to his left and a plan formed in his mind.

“Get away from the door!” he ordered and jumped behind the stack.  
After second of hesitation, Mabel realized what he was about to do and quickly took a step back. Dipper shot Bill a look that he hoped conveyed his intentions and the offer to trust him. After making sure Mabel was at a safe distance, Bill stepped back.

The door flew open and half a dozen bodies tumbler after it with even more pushing and shoving to get inside. Dipper threw himself against the stack. There was an unbearably long moment of silence as the top row slowly tipped, only the quiet sound of shifting plastic disturbing it.

Then like an explosion countless bottles hit the ground. They crashed on top of each other, against a nearby shelf, hit the wall and scattered all over the floor.  
They didn’t hit any of the sleepwalkers but successfully blocked their way, tripping them and preventing them from getting back up again. The ones who managed to sidestep the mess were either shoved from behind by the steady stream of people who still forced themselves through the narrow entrance or pulled to the ground by others.  
Their intimidating number had turned into a disadvantage.

Toppling over another crate on his way, Dipper hurried to join Mabel and Bill just as they opened the back door. Bright daylight blinded him for a second but they didn’t stop running. They crossed the smaller parking lot at the back of the building, maneuvering between delivery trucks then turned the corner to the main street.  
A few more steps and they were on their way out of the town.  
Mabel gasped.

Before them the road was blocked by more sleepwalkers.  
They were by far not as numerous as the ones in the store but they were placed strategically.  
Waiting for them.

That was also the first time Dipper heard Bill curse. It wasn’t anything he understood, probably in a different language, but the meaning was obvious.

“Don’t stop!” Bill yelled when the twins slowed down and the sleepwalkers had become aware of the presence, lazily turning towards them.

Dipper sped up again but at this rate they were going to run right into their arms. Were they just going to tackle them?  
The two man in the front wearing oil-stained overalls looked like their large hands could easily break bones and Dipper did not feel like finding out if he was right.

When only a few paces separated them, Bill raised both his hands and Dipper realized what his intentions were. Without hesitation, he reached out for him and held onto his upper arm, feeling warmth spread along his nerves. On the other side, he saw Mabel do the same.   
Three points, he remembered. A seal.

There were so close now, he could almost touch the men’s dirty fingertips.  
Mabel’s hand closed over his and as soon as he felt the touch, paralyzing numbness expanded inside of him. Time slowed, movement stilled and his heart skipped a beat or two. Then a large chunk of energy was ripped from him and the sleepwalkers were thrown aside, blue flames racing across the crowd and breaking through their ranks.  
Dipper’s body seemed to move on its own as he dodger their arms and jumped over sprawled limbs.

The roads before them was clear and although his burning lungs ached air, did not allow himself to slow down. They reached the golf cart, gasping and trembling with exhaustion and only then did Dipper realized he had let go of Mabel but was still holding onto Bill. He quickly dropped his hand and jumped behind the wheel, turning the keys. Bill resumed his seat at the back and Mabel hopped in next to him.

They didn’t seem to be followed but he wasn’t going to take any chances. Immensely grateful for Soos improvement of the cart he floored the pedal, tires screeching, and left the town behind them as fast as the small vehicle would allow.

Trees rushed by at both sides and soon the sign pointing towards the Shack came into view. The sheet of paper with Mabel’s cat on it was still there and Dipper had never thought he would be this happy to see it.

When they finally reached the parking space in front of the Mystery Shack did Dipper allow himself to relax a little. With it came a wave of exhaustion and the urgent need to ask a million questions.  
He parked the car, make sure Mabel was alright then turned to Bill to demand answers. Were they safe here? What was controlling the sleepwalkers and how? Since when could he shoot fire from his freaking hands?

All those questions got stuck in his throat when he took in Bill’s condition. He had seen him injured before but this was new.  
Maybe it was the way he held his body or the look in his eyes but he seemed to be in serious pain as he sat with his arms pressed close to his chest, shoulders trembling and sweat beading on his forehead. Dipper reached out to touch him, if just to comfort him a little, but Bill recoiled from his touch, lips pressed into a thin line.  
It stung but he quickly pulled his hand back, shooting Mabel a worried glance. She looked just as helpless as he felt. It took Bill a lot of effort to get out of the cart and Dipper expected him to head for the house but instead he turned around the corner that led to the back porch and vanished from their sight.

At least this time, Dipper thought, he was not likely to run off. He sighed and went inside the Shack, wondering what had gone wrong this time. Mabel did not follow him but instead walked after Bill, hopefully keeping an eye on him. They could not afford being defenseless against a whole town and a mind controlling nightmare.

Pouring himself a glass of water in the kitchen, he was reminded that because of to the attack, they had not acquired any food. He was sure Mabel could still whip something up with the stuff in the freezer but how long was that going to last? Dipper’s stomach growled but he wasn’t feeling hungry. All he wanted to do, was, crawl into bed and sleep until this was all over.  
He turned when Mabel entered the room.

“Should we be worried?” she asked, falling into a chair. “Bill is sitting outside, staring at trees.”

Dipper’s eyebrows raised and he couldn’t quite suppress an amused smile.  
“Maybe we shouldn’t be taking him shopping again.”

That made Mabel laugh. But she became solemn quickly again.  
A heavy silence hung in the room, filled with questions neither of them could answer.

“What happened?” Mabel asked anyway after a while and Dipper didn’t know if she meant Bill, the sleepwalkers or the nightmare. Not that it mattered.

“I don’t know.” He walked over and gave her a quick hug to which she responded by lightly patting his arm.

Then he heated up some more water and rummaged through the cupboards until he found a few packets of instant hot chocolate and prepared a mug for her.

While he worked, his eyes fell on the journal that he hadn’t touched since Bill had brought it back and his tiredness was momentarily forgotten. He didn’t want to burden his sister with it so he placed the drink in front of her, told her he would take a quick nap and secretly snatched the book off the counter as he walked by.

There was dirt on the cover and some of the pages had wrinkled from moisture but in regards to its general condition it didn’t look much worse than before. Once in the bedroom, he took off his shoes and flopped down onto the bed on his stomach, curious to see what he had overlooked.  
Maybe great uncle Ford had left some kind of code or puzzle that he just hadn’t discovered yet. But the pages look no different than they had before. The more closer he looked and the more tattered pages he turned, the more frustrated he became.  
He knew that Ford had to disguise this kind of information but couldn’t he have made it at least a little easier to find? Dipper was close to giving up and actually take the nap he had said he would when he reached the last pagel. A crease began to appear on his forehead.  
He went back to the first half and slowly paged through the book again. After repeating it a second time, he closed the book and looked closely at the binding on top. There was a small gap in the very center, indicating the absence of a page or two. Digging his fingernail into it, Dipper opened the middle of the book and found his suspicions confirmed.  
The instructions for the portal were missing.

He almost laughed out loud. Of course Bill wouldn’t trust him with information as valuable to him as this. Apparently he was afraid Dipper would destroyed them and interfere with his plans of building another portal. Perhaps it had also contained the mechanism to banish him or other valuable advice.  
Or maybe it hadn’t held any information at all. Maybe all great uncle Ford had left them, was a warning not to repeat his mistakes. Which had been trusting Bill in the first place.

Dipper drew a slow breath as his fingers kept flipping through the book without really reading anything and halted on the page with Ford’s notes on Bill.

‘Do not summon at all costs.’

He stared at the drawing next to it, trying to imagine this as the same Bill he had been living with for the past few days. The stark contrast of the black triangle with the single, haunting eye was nothing like the pretty face with the cheeky grin he had come used to. He wondered if that was a good or bad thing.  
Tasting blood, he stopped chewing on his lip, shut the journal and tossed it under his bed. He buried his face in the crook of his arm and concentrated on breathing, ignoring the storm of thoughts in his head.

After another minute of unsuccessfully trying to calm down, he pushed himself up and walked over to the window where he had a partial view of the meadow and adjacent forest. And there he saw Mabel putting a blanket around Bill’s shoulders, who sat cross-legged on the cold grass. She was talking to him and even though Dipper was too far away to hear any of it or read her lips, he concluded from their relaxed posture and gentle gestures that it was mainly a friendly conversation. In her other hand Mabel was holding the mug of hot chocolate and Dipper regretted not having prepared one for Bill as well. It was cold outside and the blanket wouldn’t keep him warm for very long. And someone had to patch up his injuries again. And when was the last time he had eaten anything? 

Dipper leaned his forehead against the cool glass and watched Mabel walk back to the house then looked over to the heap on the ground that was Bill. He was almost sitting in the same spot where Dipper had found him one sunny morning when he had thought for the first time that they could actually get along. It had only been a few days but felt like a lifetime ago. So much had changed since then.


	41. XLI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait! I hope this chapter makes it up to you. enjoy!

There was a brief sensation of falling as the mattress dipped next to him and Dipper jerked awake.  
He hadn’t meant to fall asleep and despised the subsequent disorientation. What he hated even more, was, when someone saw him in this state. Especially if it was Bill.  
“What’d’ya want?” Dipper slurred, stifling a yawn and pulling his legs away from the spot where Bill had sat down on his bed.   
A jolt raced up from his chest when he remembered the conversation outside his window earlier.  
“Where’s Mabel?”

“Relax, Pine Tree,” Bill scoffed. “She’s asleep downstairs.”

Dipper wiped a hand over his eyes in an attempt to focus them. He hoped Bill would find other ways to gather energy soon. They couldn’t keep catching up with sleep like this.  
When he felt a little more awake he looked the other over.  
There was no blood anymore on Bill’s face and his hair was wet from a recent washing. He didn’t seem to be in pain any longer either. Even his hands had returned to a healthy color, only his fingernails showed slight traces of charring.  
Dipper watched him, still a little sluggish, as he yawned contently, stretched his arms and laid back, claiming a good portion of the bed.  
Dipper pulled in his legs to make room for him, mostly so he didn’t accidentally touch him and wondered how long he had been asleep.  
A pale sun was still high in the sky so not too much time had passed. He propped himself up on his elbows to look at Bill but the other had turned his back to him.  
“Do you want to rest or did you just come here to bother me?”

Bill snickered.  
“Both.”  
And without turning around he added, “I’m tired but the sofa is taken and the door to my room is locked.”

“That’s not your room,” Dipper stated dryly but left the fact that there was one other empty bed in the room uncommented. Strangely, he didn’t mind the other’s presence all too much.  
“What did you and Mabel talk about?”

He hadn’t wanted this to be the first question on his mind but I couldn’t take it back anymore. Since he had seen them together on the meadow, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Mabel was planning something behind his back. Maybe another exorcism.  
“She apologized.”

Dipper blinked.  
“What?”  
Apparently his sister really had been up to something. But not in the way he had expected. That could have been the reason why she didn’t want to do it with Dipper around and had waited for a moment alone with Bill.  
“What did she apologize for?”

Bill offered a cocky smile.  
“For drugging me and tying me up yesterday.”

“Why would she do that?” Dipper asked flatly and this time earned a glare over a shoulder.  
“Maybe because she saw what I’m doing for you both.”

Dipper quirked an eyebrow.  
“Like carving self-portraits into our bones and draining our life force?”

Dipper felt the incipient grin disappear when Bill, instead of getting angry as he had expected, lied back down silently with a sigh. He hadn’t wanted to bring it up again like this but the words had slipped.  
He knew Bill was protecting them, he had proven it, but all the things he had lied about in the beginning could not be forgotten this easily.  
But holding a grudge would not help them either. If anything it made working together unnecessarily difficult for all of them.  
He waited for a snarky comment but when after a long moment, Bill still hadn’t replied and was just lying there, curled up at the foot of the bed, Dipper reached out and poked his ribs. If words didn’t evoke a response, familiar physical contact always did.  
Though, not this time. Bill was still ignoring him.  
Getting a little worried, Dipper sat up and carefully placed a hand onto the other’s shoulder. He remembered the time he had done something similar when they had spent the night in Ford’s room and quickly drew it back again. This was not where his thoughts were supposed to go.  
But at least Bill was finally looking up at him.  
Although there was a weird, even sad look in his eyes. This was not something he had wanted to accomplish, Dipper thought with a pang of regret and tried to think of a way to lighten the mood. Before he could say something, though, Bill spoke.

“I understand you’re angry with me,” he said after a moment of consideration. “And why you won’t trust me.”

Dipper tilted his head, waiting for the inevitable outburst or hurtful insults but nothing else came.  
“… Uhm… Really?” he asked, thrown off by the new behavior while trying to avoid the other’s gaze. It made him feel exposed and vulnerable.

“Weird, I know,” Bill said, smiling faintly and brushed the hair from his forehead.  
“But I was desperate.”  
He looked directly at Dipper.  
“I really didn’t mean for you to get hurt... Both of you I mean. Sorry.”

Dipper’s mouth fell open and he quickly closed it.  
He didn’t know what to say to this so he busied his hands by fidgeting with the bed sheets, pretending it took all his concentration to flatten a handful of wrinkles.  
He wasn’t sure he would be getting used to Bill apologizing to him any time soon. To defuse the tense situation he opted for simply changing the topic.  
“Care to explain what happened in the supermarket?” he asked quietly after a minute of uncomfortable silence.  
Bill gave him a long look, probably trying to figure out if he had accepted his apology or not, while Dipper was wondering the same.  
That whole situation would be so much easier if they could just yell at each other again, he thought.

“With the blue light and ...everything,” Dipper elaborated, trying to sound casual.

“You mean this?”  
Bill held up his palms and Dipper jumped back, throwing up his arms for protection. But there was no sudden heat or weird sensation.  
Laughing deviously, Bill lowered his hands again.  
“Didn’t know I could do that, right?” he asked, grinning cheekily.

Dipper glared at him, his heart beating rapidly. He was a little angry at Bill for startling him and for the reminder that he had begun lowering his guard around the other but even more he felt relieved that they could go back to their usual bickering.   
“Maybe a warning next time?” Dipper growled and relaxed his posture.

Bill set up, facing him.  
“I didn’t know I could manipulate energy like this here myself. Comes in handy, don’t you think? Although-,” he paused.  
“It almost wasn’t necessary. You did pretty great on your own... At least on the second try.”

Dipper glared but also nearly blushed. First apologies, now compliments? What was wrong with Bill? What did he want to accomplish with this?  
The flutter in his chest came to an abrupt halt when he remembered the knife in his stomach, Bill’s finger around the handle. He should have known it was a nightmare back then too. But it had felt so real.  
“It was the… fear of getting hurt, right? Of dying?” he asked but it wasn’t a question at all. He swallowed, shaking off the terrible images.

There was something illegible in Bill’s eyes. Was he still mad he had punched him? Dipper wouldn’t blame him.  
“Yeah, very common actually. I should have known there would be one of those around but I didn’t know they were so powerful.”

“What do you mean ‘powerful’?” Dipper asked, feeling his skin crawl.

Bill linked his arms around his knees and fixed his eyes onto the ceiling.  
“You started talking random stuff, that’s when I knew he had you,” he said. “But I didn’t expect you to react like this. Usually nightmares evoke fear not aggression.”

Dipper shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t want to think about what he had seen Bill do to him.  
It had been far worse than fear. He had felt betrayed.  
Something about him must have given away his thoughts because suddenly Bill was looking at him intently. 

“It was me who hurt you, wasn’t it?” he asked into the sudden silence and Dipper dropped his gaze.  
Bill hummed. “I figured.”

“But that wasn’t why I -...”  
Dipper tried to get his voice under control again.  
“I thought you were going to hurt Mabel,” he explained. “I had to do something.”

“But why?” Bill asked. “Why would you think I’d hurt her? What could I possibly gain from-…?”

“I don’t know. Energy? Power?” Dipper interrupted, gesturing incoherently. “I don’t know what you’re capable of! And it’s not really something I could explain logically, is it? It’s in my subconscious after all with it being a nightmare and everything. You should know that. It was just so-...”

He bit his tongue to keep from rambling, feeling Bill’s gaze on him. He didn’t want to talk about it. And he didn’t want to try explaining something he didn’t even understand himself.  
Taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly, concentrating on the dust that danced in the faint sunlight.  
“Didn’t you tell me that the nightmares draw power from our fears? I don’t know, maybe that’s it,” he said quietly.  
“It’s just something I’m afraid of.”

“Of me hurting your sister?”  
Bill was studying him closely.

“And me being unable to defend her,” Dipper explained. “But not just that… Also I’m -...”  
He couldn’t say it.  
Even though he was aware of Bill’s goals he apparently had began to hope he and Mabel weren’t merely his energy supply. That maybe they had begun working as a team of some sort. That they could rely on each other. And even if it as just a little trust, he was scared of having it destroyed. Maybe that was why he had not wanted to start trusting Bill in the first place.  
Bill was still looking at him, waiting for him to keep talking but Dipper kept silent. He did not want to ponder over past events, it was only making him dizzy trying to explain what he had seen and felt. Now they had to focus on the present.

“So… Whose energy did you take to heal yourself?” he asked, pointing at Bill’s hands.  
He didn’t really expect an answer, all he wanted was to stop talking about himself before he admitted anything too personal.

Bill didn’t seem fazed by the question, however. He didn’t even look angry.  
Perhaps he was getting better at reading between the lines by now.  
“There’s a small gap by the edge of the woods,” he explained. “I can draw some energy from it. It’s not much but enough to patch up this body.”

Dipper thought of the time he had found him in the meadow the day after the accident.  
“I thought you were just enjoying the scenery.”

Bill smiled. “I don’t do anything without a purpose, Pine Tree.”

Dipper swallowed thickly.  
“I noticed,” he said bitterly, not wanting to think about what else he had done with an ulterior motive.  
“Like dragging us into the forest and making us fight invisible monsters or a horde of unconscious people. That worked out well.”

“Dammit Pine Tree, I already apologized for that! Besides it wouldn’t even have been necessary if you’d just listened to me and done what I told you.”

Dipper felt anger well up in is throat. Not this again. He didn’t want to argue but Bill’s arrogant expression was making him furious. He doubted any of the demon’s plans were well thought out and maybe next time they would not be able to escape.  
“Being sorry does not undo what happened,” he said sharply.  
He pretended not to see when Bill winced slightly but there was no denying his words had hurt.  
“If you had just been honest with us in the first place...,” he continued, trying his best not to raise his voice. “Or explained your plans just a little better...”  
Dipper reached out and took hold of Bill’s wrist who let him lift his hand without protest. His fingertips were reddened with freshly healed skin.  
“...then you wouldn’t have to burn your hands or risk your own life saving us.”

He felt Bill tense in preparation of defending his actions and quickly dropped his hand. Instead he leaned forward some more and placed his fingers on the side of his jaw before he could respond.  
Bill flinched but this gaze remained steady.  
“And maybe I wouldn’t have punched you in the face,” Dipper went on, voice slightly unsteady. “Although I’m not so sure about that.”

He pressed his thumb onto Bill’s lower lip where it had split. The skin had healed but a faint scar was still visible.  
Bill glowered at him but made no attempt to pull free.

“It’s not like you haven’t done that before,” he said and snatched for the intrusive fingers, teeth clicking when he missed. Dipper had pulled them away at the last moment.  
Glaring, he dug his hands into the front of Bill’s hoodie, holding in place.

“I regret nothing,” he said and yanked at the collar.

Up until then Dipper had been under the impression that he was the one initiating what followed but then Bill’s hand appeared on the back of his neck, pulling him in.  
He winced when their mouths collided.

It more closely resembled a competition of who could shut the other up more efficiently than a kiss but it worked for both of them.  
Dipper had his eyes shut tight. Breathing shallowly he was barely filling his lungs with air, anxiously waiting for Bill to either push him away equally forceful or proceed.  
And then he realized that the other was probably doing the same, both of them too proud to admit that they wanted this but having gone too far to pretend otherwise.  
Then the hard line of Bill’s lips softened and Dipper’s heart was suddenly at the back of his throat. He would have known how to handle bared teeth or a punch but not the unexpected tenderness of the other’s warm mouth over his own.  
Especially when a slight tilt of their heads allowed for more contact.

Bill shifted so that his legs were out of the way and placed his other hand on Dipper’s side. The touch was subtle but perfectly conveyed his intentions. Dipper’s head began to swim and he didn’t know if it was from lack of air or the way Bill was holding him. He suspected the former because despite the proximity they hadn’t really done much.  
When after a while Bill still hadn’t moved away but was holding his body very still, barely breathing, Dipper realized what he seemed to be waiting for and his insides churned with a sudden wave of affection.  
He cupped the other’s face carefully in his hands and began to gently move his lips against his, waiting for Bill to copy him.  
His stomach flipped when he did.

At first he was a little hesitant but then his pride seemed to kick in and he responded more eagerly.  
It was completely different from their first time or when Dipper had kissed him in the supermarket. Back then they had had no time to do more than that, let alone adjust to this whole new situation or accept that it had happened in the first place. It seemed they both wanted to make up for the lost time and wasted opportunities.  
When Dipper nipped at his lower lip and opened his mouth a little just to find out how far he was allowed to go, Bill had shaken off the last bit of his initial insecurity. Leaning forward, he pushed their bodies closer together, parted his lips and sucked Dipper’s tongue into his mouth. His hand had worked its way under his sweater and Dipper’s breath stopped completely. Bill hadn’t even known how to kiss properly, how was it possible for him to be moving forward so shamelessly, Dipper wondered, at the same time reminding himself that they should probably not be doing this.  
Yet he found not a single part of him really cared. All that mattered at the moment was right in front of him.

He tried to concentrate on taking it slow and showing Bill how to do this but what the other lacked in experience he made up with fierce passion. He pushed forward, moving his lips more roughly than before as his palms slid across Dipper’s stomach.  
It was already difficult to concentrate but then all of a sudden the tip of Bill’s tongue lapped against the inside of his cheek and Dipper lost all restraints.  
He slid one hand to the back of his head, firmly pressing their mouths onto each other and began chasing the intrusive tongue with his own.  
It was rough and sloppy and intoxicating. Everything else, the nightmares, the sleepwalkers, faded to the back of his mind and his entire existence narrowed down to Bill and the places where their bodies met.  
But like everything they did, it was a battle for dominance and soon Dipper found his lips aching from friction and indents of Bill’s teeth. They both grew desperate for air but only allowed quick gasps before attacking each other’s lips again.

Bill’s fingers slid up his spine, evoking a wave of electricity that ran along his nerves and Dipper drew an involuntary breath. During that second of distraction, Bill instantly reclaimed his mouth and briefly bit down onto the tip of his tongue.  
Dipper winced and felt Bill’s lips draw back into a grin.  
That would not go unpunished, he thought and pushed against Bill’s shoulders, pinning him to the wall at his back. He couldn’t figure out if the groan that followed was due to surprise, annoyance, or arousal but he didn’t care either way. All he wanted was to hear it again and enforced his hold a little.  
When the hand on his back vanished, Dipper thought he had pushed his luck and was now going to be shoved off. Then fingers dipped beneath the waistband of his pants and he jumped. It threw him off long enough for Bill to gain the upper hand again and he freed himself from the firm grip on his shoulders. Dipper drew a sharp breath when a thumb pressed into his sides, tracing the curve of his hipbone. For someone who wasn’t used to these kinds of interactions, Bill seemed to know exactly how to get the desired response.  
Or he was just guessing, Dipper suspected. By now, everywhere Bill touched him his skin seemed to burn and every movement sent heat into his guts. His hands coasted along the other’s neck, feeling the steady pulse in his throat and came to rest on his chest.  
Bill drew back a little but Dipper had no intention of pushing him away. One hand clutched at the collar of his hoodie, the other pulled open his zipper in a swift motion. Now it was Bill who flinched as air and cool fingers spread on his bare skin. Dipper got to enjoy the reaction and feeling beneath his palms only for a moment before the hand on his neck disappeared and Bill shifted his weight.  
Gripping both sides of his waist, Bill pulled him in, increasing the pressure of their joined lips and next thing he knew, Dipper was on his back, the weight of Bill’s body on him, his protests silenced by the other’s relentless mouth.  
Not wanting to be outdone, he slid his hands along Bill’s chest and over to his sides, pushing up against him. Bill made a sound in his throat that sent shivers across the skin of Dipper’s stomach.

They briefly broke the kiss, panting, eyes locked, holding onto each other.  
It was a silent request to continue but neither could tell who was asking and who was the first to agree. When Bill leaned in once more, Dipper pulled him down.

This time there were a lot more gentle with each other. Dipper had stopped forcing his tongue between the other’s teeth and Bill didn’t bite. They were now matching each other’s rhythm, movements coming more naturally and Dipper felt himself relax. He traced the skin under his fingertips, following the texture of bones and tendons, marveling at the sensation of taut muscles gliding beneath his palms.  
Bill leaned into his touch, fingers digging into his side, pushing their hips together. Flushing, Dipper recalled the last time they had been in a similar position and he had wondered to what extent Bill had control over his body.  
Just now he was finding out that he was indeed very much capable of basic human functions. Before he had the opportunity to ponder what exactly that meant in regards to their current situation, Bill moved against him and they both gasped.

Dipper cursed mentally. This was not where this was supposed to be be going. What if Mabel walked in on them? What if the nightmares were to attack?  
Bill bucked his hips again and these thoughts evaporated. Dipper heard a low whine that may or may not have come from his own throat and slid his hands up the others back, mimicking his movements.  
With the added stimulation their concentration on kissing loosened a little. When Dipper broke the contact to breathe he turned his head slightly and Bill pressed his face against the exposed skin of his throat. Dipper halfheartedly suppressed the moan rising in his chest.  
It encouraged Bill to pay closer attention to it. He followed the tendons to below his ear with his lips, applying the occasional nip and then sucked the skin between his teeth.

“If you give me a hickey, I will punch you again,” Dipper warned between quiet groans and gasps for air.

Bill chuckled and Dipper felt the vibrations against his chest. When he didn’t release him immediately, Dipper dug his nails into the small of his back. A low growl sounded against his neck and Dipper rolled his eyes.  
He should have known Bill liked that.  
Then a hot tongue ran across the shell of his ear and he shuddered, pressing his nails down a little harder.  
Bill groaned and bucked against him in response. Dipper bit his lips, reveling in the friction.

At this rate he realized, he wasn’t better off than Bill and not going to last much longer, already feeling the muscles in his lower abdomen constrict involuntarily.  
He tried to think of a way to keep as much of his dignity as possible in front of the other. He just knew Bill was going to find it very amusing if he made him come in his pants.  
But on the other hand he didn’t feel like stopping now either.  
This was a mess.

The best he could do know was to take him down with him, he decided.  
Wrapping his arms around the body on top of him and turning his face he attempted to get a hold of his mouth. Bill shifted to accommodate him, capturing his lower lip.  
Bringing a hand up to his leg, he pushed his thighs further apart.  
Dipper tensed when dull pain welled up in his knee.  
He thought he could easily ignore it but Bill had already drawn back, looking down at him with concern, afraid he had done something wrong.  
Dipper averted his eyes.

“It’s nothing,” he said quietly and tugged at his clothes, trying to get him on top again but Bill didn’t budge.  
He placed a hand over the joint, pushing down and Dipper failed to keep a straight face as a sharp jolt raced up his bones. The spot where his knee had hit the tiled floor throbbed painfully.  
Really great timing, Dipper thought, crunching his teeth.

He was about to get up and leave, maybe retreat to the bathroom and finish himself off when Bill’s hands made him halt. They had moved up his thigh and to the front of his pants, not holding him still but their presence rendered him immobile nonetheless.  
Dipper’s breathing accelerated when they undid the button and slowly pulled down the zipper. He instinctively reached down to cover himself but Bill did not seem to be interested. He worked him out of his jeans, pushed them down to his ankles and grabbed his leg with both hands.

Protests had already formed on Dipper’s tongue but never made it past that state when he got a look at his knee.  
The joint was swollen, the skin around it red and tender, every touch stinging terribly. He watched closely as Bill put one hand on his shin, the other on his mid thigh then glanced at him before leaning his cheek against his knee.

Dipper winced.  
I rush of hot water stole his breath.  
When he opened his eyes after a second the pain was gone. His skin still looked bruised but that would fade soon. Bill slowly let go and looked at him expectantly. Despite the nonchalance of his actions, his cheeks were flushed and he was absentmindedly running his tongue over his swollen lips. Dipper couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“Better?” Bill asked into the silence and when no answer came. “That’s what I mainly use my energy for so stop complaining, okay?”

Dipper threw him an annoyed glance but couldn’t really talk back after he had just healed him. He stretched his leg, glad that it had stopped hurting and tried to pull his pants back up, wondering if this was the end to all this.  
Bill sighed.

“No need to thank me,” he said sarcastically and Dipper scowled.

“Shut up,” he growled and seized his collar.

The moment of surprise and hesitation quickly passed when he pushed their lips together once more and pulled Bill down.  
He didn’t really feel like exchanging insults right now. Or talking in general.  
Also there were other ways to show his gratitude.

Carefully he ran his fingers along Bill’s stomach, waiting for the moment the other would push his hands away but nothing like this happened. His fingertips grazed the front of his pants and his pulse spiked when Bill bucked his hips against his touch. Dipper regarded this as a permission to keep going.  
He popped open the button of Bill’s pants and slid his fingers beneath the waistband. Bill flinched but didn’t break the kiss, even spread his legs a little to allow for more access. Dipper took it, mentally thanking his past self for not having him given any underwear.

He was hot and heavy as Dipper was sliding along his palm and he wondered if Bill was still as sensitive to touch as he had been on the first day.   
Curling his fingers around him, he applied gentle pressure and Bill practically dropped on him when his arms gave out momentarily.  
That was a yes then, Dipper thought triumphantly and did it again.  
Bill pulled his mouth away, his breath coming in short, unsteady gasps. When he looked up, his eyes were heavy lidded and unfocused. He shut them tightly when Dipper began to move his hand. His hair fell into his face, brushing along his heated cheeks.

Dipper wanted to tilt up his chin to kiss him again but decided to focus his attention elsewhere.  
Slowly alternating between squeezing the shaft and cupping the head, he enjoyed when Bill matched his rhythm with bucks of his hip.  
Something at the back of his head tried to tell him how surreal the whole situation was, how potentially dangerous. That he didn’t know what he was getting himself into. Kissing was one thing but this was a whole lot further than that.  
Then Bill made a low sound and leaned against the side of his face and Dipper’s concerns were extinguished. They had to deal with enough this week, he thought and he deserved a distraction. There was no harm in fooling around a little.

After only a few more strokes he felt warm liquid on his thumb when he ran it across the tip. Bill buried his face in his shoulder, fisting the sheets on both sides of Dipper’s head.  
Dipper put his unoccupied arm around the others back, feeling the slight shivers and rapid rise and fall of his chest as he was drawing closer.  
He didn’t know why but he felt the need to show Bill, who had repeatedly told him how much he hated being human, that sometimes it could feel nice too.  
That maybe staying here wasn’t so bad after all.  
Hadn’t Bill already admitted to him that affection felt nice? He could have this too if he wanted.

There was hot breath against Dipper’s throat and the firm flesh in his hand throbbed as heat erupted across his palm, up to his wrist. He held Bill until his breathing had evened out again, feeling the comfortable weight against his chest. It didn’t take long for Bill to shake off his arm and he pushed himself up. When he lifted his head his face was flushed and he avoided eye contact.  
Dipper concluded he had to be embarrassed and wished he could take a picture.

Carefully withdrawing his hand, he looked around for a way to clean it. The sheets were freshly washed and the clothes he wore weren’t an option either. As a last resort he reached below the comforter and fished out his pajama shirt. He rarely wore it in summer anyway and it got the job done.  
When he returned his attention to Bill, he saw he had shaken off his afterglow expression for the most part and was now smirking down at him. Dipper felt warmth creep up his neck and into his ears when he realized that he was glancing at the very obvious bulge in his underwear.

“Means I’m healthy, doesn’t it?” he said, repeating Bill’s words while trying to sound more confident than he felt.  
Bill chuckled.

“We’ll see,” he replied and reached for him.

Dipper who had tried to casually pull his pants back up, found his wrists suddenly pinned to the mattress. He had expected Bill to just leave after what he just done but that didn’t seem to be on the other’s mind at all.  
When Dipper had stopped resisting, Bill reluctantly withdrew his hands and placed them on his sides. He held down his hips and settled himself between Dipper legs then swiftly tucked down his boxers.  
Dipper drew a breath when cool air hit heated skin. Nervously chewing his sleep, he expected Bill to do the same he had just done when he took him in his hand.  
But then he briefly smirked at him and lowered his head.

Dipper recoiled, clutching the others shoulder and pushing himself up on his elbows.  
“What are you doing?!”

Bill looked up but did not to move back, his warm breath much too close.  
“What does it look like?” he asked, eyebrows raised.

“I-… I don’t-…” Dipper struggled for words.  
“I don’t feel particularly comfortable with your teeth…there...”

Bill shot him an annoyed glare.  
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ve seen enough dreams of this. Sometimes it’s like sex is the only thing on people’s minds.”

Dipper was anything but convinced.  
“Yeah, okay, ...but...how often have you actually done this?”

“Pinetree,” Bill sighed. “I’m a billion-year-old demon and I’ve existed longer than humanity itself.”

“So… never?”

Bill chuckled and moved forward again.  
“Just relax for once.”

“How am I supposed to do that when you could easily bite my-…”  
His protest broke off with a gasp when Bill’s tongue pressed against him.

His hand was still on the other’s shoulder but now he didn’t feel like pushing him away anymore.

“If only I’d known this would shut you up,” Bill mused and applied a swift lick across the tip.

Dipper’s arms gave out and he fell back onto the bed. Before he had time to catch his breath, Bill gripped more firmly, bent down and slowly ran his tongue all the way along his shaft.  
Clasping a hand over his mouth, Dipper tried to hold back any sounds that might escape him. He spotted a glint of satisfaction in the other’s eyes when he couldn’t suppress a jerk of his hips. A hand came up to hold him still and he bit down onto the palm of his hand to keep quiet as Bill applied a couple more licks.

It was already almost too much to handle but then Bill reached the tip again and instead of pulling away, closed his lips around the head.  
Dipper shut his eyes and tried to breathe through his nose but his control was slowly slipping away from him as he was being surrounded by slick heat.  
It was not the first time he was on the receiving end of this particular treatment but never had he wanted anyone as badly as Bill. A few hours ago he had bloodied his face and now they were doing this, he thought. He couldn’t think of a logical explanation.  
Except that Bill probably gained a shitton of energy from this, Dipper thought and almost laughed hadn’t Bill moved his head and immediately turned the sound into a moan.  
Maybe it was the thrill of doing something he knew could have severe consequences. Maybe sometimes it was a relief to not overthink everything. Or maybe it was just something he had wanted to do for a while now.

Bill took him in a little further and Dipper moaned at the sensation. He felt himself swell even more in the other’s mouth, the rough and smooth texture of his tongue and palate barely a distraction from the firm grip around his length.  
Pushing his back into the mattress, he dug his nails into Bill’s shoulders. He already felt the familiar pressure building inside him even though they had barely started.  
Just as he had feared the other’s teeth scraped against his sensitive skin but instead of discomfort it added a whole new sensation.  
Dipper hadn’t known he was into that.  
A disseminated heat had began to form in his chest and legs and now slowly drained into his lower abdomen.

“Bill,” he groaned, the plea muffled by his hand.

Bill responded by easing over the spot his teeth had touched with his tongue, deliberately taking in more. He swallowed around him reflectively and the brief constriction left Dipper moaning between clenched lips. Pushing against his shoulders once more, he tried to warn Bill of the inevitable but he wasn’t fast enough.

He pulled back but the added friction was enough to break the last of Dipper’s control. Shutting his eyes, he felt his skin prickle.  
The tension in his muscles built and escalated to the point where his back arched off the bed and pulled back his head. Without being able to contain it any longer he was completely subjected to his body’s reaction as his thoughts and senses were suffocated by blissful agony.

Through a haze of relief and gradually subsiding pressure he felt Bill jerk his head back, releasing him. Wincing, Dipper concentrated on getting his heart rate and breathing back to a reasonable level. He was only slowly emerging from the afterglow when Bill reached over his head. Before he had a chance to process his intentions, he had already grabbed his shirt and pressed it to his mouth.

“Don’t you dare,” Dipper grumbled but his voice was heavy and weak, lacking the necessary emphasis.  
He saw Bill lick across his lips carefully when he had lowered the shirt again and felt his face heat up. Letting his head fall back, he threw an arm over his eyes, hoping it wasn’t noticed.  
“Now I’ll have to burn it,” he said flatly and Bill scoffed.

“Do you burn all your socks too?” he asked, only the slightest of grins tinting his voice. “Or do you only do these things in the shower?”

Dipper felt more blood rush to his face now that it was no longer needed elsewhere and hastily pulled up his pants. He shot Bill a quick glare, not surprised that nothing had changed between them.  
Probably he deserved that, he thought, considering how he had treated the other.  
Swinging his legs off the bed, he made to get up but a hand on his arm held him back. He turned, ready to snap and tell Bill that he should really stop doing that but kept silent at the look on his face.

“What now?” he asked but a lot gentler than he had intended. The hand fell away and for a moment he was convinced Bill wouldn’t answer.

“Stay,” he said finally and Dipper wondered how much of his pride it had taken out of him to request something like this.

Swallowing, he thought of a dozen nasty remarks from stealing more life force to obligatory cuddling but again he held his tongue. If he wanted them to be more civil towards each other he couldn’t shoot him down every time he showed the slightest bit of decent behavior. Especially after what he had just done for him.  
So instead he fluffed his pillow, lied back down and gestured Bill to do the same.

At first he was a little hesitant as he stretched out next to him and they both made sure not to touch or make eye contact. It took them a few minutes to relax and get comfortable with each other’s presence.  
When Dipper looked over he saw Bill had his eyes closed. How peaceful he looked.  
Suddenly he had the strong urge to reach over and place a hand on him just to feel his warmth but he was afraid to irritate him and destroy this fragile moment.  
So he just watched him as slowly began to drift of next to him.

His thoughts eventually returned to the journal hidden beneath the bed.  
He decided to read through it again later to make absolutely sure he hadn’t overlooked anything.

Bill made a soft, relaxed sound that momentarily distracted him.

The book had no secrets, he reminded himself. Only a warning.  
Bold, black letters appeared before his inner eye.  
‘Do not summon at all costs.’

Too late, Dipper thought and closed his eyes.


	42. XLII

Dipper fished out another Mac-and-cheese box, placed it on the counter then decided to take a third.  
He and Mabel had spent the last hour searching the house for food and had found a small stash of chips and cookies in Soos’ small office and a few packets of instant meals in the cupboard behind a row of cookbooks.

Bill had still been sleeping when Dipper had gotten up and he hadn't yet seen the need to wake him. The forest and surrounding area had been peaceful and none of the sleepwalkers had shown up at their door yet. The barrier Bill had set up around the shack seemed to work this time.

Dipper placed a pot of water onto the stove to boil and peeled open the packets, his stomach growling at the thought of a meal. It had been a while since he had felt actual appetite.

“What song is this?” Mabel asked when she said a bottle of apple juice onto the table.

“Hm? What song?”

“You were humming.”

“Oh.”  
Dipper fought the urge to turn around and poured the pasta into the barely hot water.  
“Don’t know. It’s nothing.”

He felt his sister’s gaze on the back of his neck.

“I’ve been talking to Bill,” she said after a while and although Dipper knew about it already, he didn’t interrupt.  
“I told him I’d help him create a portal if it really was the only way,” she said then fell quiet in anticipation of Dipper’s reply.

“Do you still have some of that exorcism equipment lying around?” he asked. “Because I think I’ll have to use it on you.”

He briefly turned his face to her so she could see he was joking.  
Mabel blinked a few times, visibly taken aback by that reaction.

“I just thought you,…” she continued then changed her mind and started over.  
“What happened with the town really scared me,” she admitted. “And when the nightmare got me, I saw it happening to me as well. To all of us.”  
She swallowed.  
“I wouldn’t be able to stand it if you ended up like this. I tried to find a solution in Ford’s books but this whole thing is too big for us and if Bill says he can help then-.”  
She stopped when Dipper walked over to her.

“It’s okay, he said, patting her shoulder. “I don’t think we have a choice either.”

Mabel relaxed visibly. “You’re not mad?”

Dipper gave her a weak smile.  
“I’m furious. But I’m also tired. And sick of being a prisoner.   
We can’t fight back on our own and if we don’t we either starve or get our minds taken away. I don’t know what’s worse and I don’t want to find out. If there’s only one way out of this why not follow through with it?”

A smile crossed Mabel‘s face. “Wow, that’s… that’s really mature, bro.”

Dipper pulled back his hand. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Mabel chuckled. “Sorry, it’s just… I’m glad you chose to redirect your efforts to fighting the nightmares instead of Bill.”

“I didn’t say that,” Dipper replied with a smirk.  
“I reorganized my priorities that’s all. Doesn’t mean getting rid of Bill’s of the list.”

He turned back and stirred a little in the pot so he didn’t have to make direct eye contact.  
“But I guess it’s not a mistake to have him on our side...For now.”

“Glad to hear,” Mabel said and went about setting the table.  
“What convinced you?” she asked after a quiet moment when she had put down the plates. “Did Bill talk to you?”

The spoon in the bubbling water stopped for a second as Dipper tried to remember how to breathe.  
“Uhm, yeah…we talked…a little.”

“Without bashing your heads in? I’m proud,” Mabel exclaimed as she arranged the cutlery.

Dipper debated if he could blame his suddenly very hot face on the rising steam. He was so fixated on keeping a straight face that he didn’t notice the figure leaning in the door until he heard a quiet snicker.

“It wasn’t too difficult to convince him actually,” Bill said and Dipper jumped.  
Bill’s gaze was directed at Mabel but Dipper knew he was talking to him.  
“Turns out all I had to do was-.”

Dipper stomach twisted into a tight knot.

“- threaten him with the fate of the sleep walkers.”

Mabel had probably noticed a short pause, her brother’s panicked look and the demon’s cheeky grin but decided not to comment on it for which Dipper was immensely grateful.

He shot Bill an angry look but he knew the color of his face took most of the intimidation and so he returned to watching the gooey contents of the pot in front of him.

“I thought if Pinetree was face-to-face with the full capabilities of the nightmares he’d finally see reason and stop interfering with my plans.”

Dipper sneered. “Interfering? Hey, I wasn’t the one who tied you up, you know,” he interrupted. He hadn’t meant to bring Mabel into this but the words were out too quickly.

Bill was unfazed. “At least Shooting Star didn’t threaten me with a knife:”

Mabel’s alarmed question of “what knife?!” was ignored.

“Oh yeah? But I bandaged your stupid hands and patched up you stupid feet because you can’t take care of your stupid human body when you run off into the woods in the middle of the night or risk our lives by taking us into a town full of zombies and you still wonder why we question your judgement?”

The air around them thickened. Mabel held her breath, waiting for the demon’s rage.  
Bill crossed his arms, his face blank.  
“Those weren’t real zombies.”

Dipper blinked, feeling the tension slip away. Bill’s response was so absolutely evasive, he couldn’t help but laugh.  
Bill grinned back at him and he heard Mabel let out a breath of relief as she realized they weren’t going to fight again after all.

When he realized how he looked, he quickly pressed his lips together and forced his attention from the other’s smile back to their early dinner, trying not to burn it. Bill walked over to one of the windows but Dipper didn’t dare looking at him again. It was embarrassing enough thinking about how the other could now use their shared experience against him. And he knew he would eventually. Usually he could tell Mabel everything but some things his sister just didn’t need to know.  
Sighing quietly he tried to think of a way to send Bill back to the midscape before he could do any damage with that information.  
When he had decided their meal had a reasonable consistency, Dipper poured it equally onto their plates.

“Behold,” Mabel announced when he sat it in front of her. “Dipper Pines unfathomable cooking skills. The unrivaled master of noodles and artificial cheese has blessed us with this a delicious meal-”

“All right,” Dipper shot back, slumping into a chair. “We all know you’re the one who can actually cook, jeez, I did my best.”

Mabel snickered. “I know, bro. Sorry. You eat so much of this stuff I’m worried about your health.”

Dipper replied by shoving a spoonful of macaroni into his mouth.  
“Not my fault it’s so good,” he said, chewing loudly.

Mabel made a disgusted face. “You’ll get those vitamin deficiency diseases,” she teased “Then you’ll start losing your teeth and your hair...You will look like Grunkle Stan before you’re even thirty.

“Scurvy,” Bill added and Dipper glared at both of them before cracking up.

“Mean. I eat lots of healthy things. Fruits and stuff. Every day.”

Mabel chuckled.  
“Ketchup is not a smoothie, bro!”

Bill snorted and clapped her hand over his mouth to not spit out his food. It startled all three of them but only for a second.

“Last time I checked tomatoes were fruit,” Dipper stated, throwing a mocking look at his sister.

“That doesn’t make pizza fruit salad,” she replied, emphasizing it with a theatrical hand gesture that made Dipper laugh.

“Then I guess you have to come over and cook for me,” he suggested and shoveled more pasta into his mouth.  
Mabel stopped with her spoon halfway to her mouth.

Even though they went to different colleges, they were still close enough to visit each other occasionally and had done so often in the beginning. During the last years however they had found less and less time for each other and although they still spent most of the holidays together, Dipper was often afraid there were slowly drifting apart.  
Mabel had a ton of friends and was already making important connections for her future whereas he himself spent his little free time surfing the Internet and eating Ramen noodles. Mabel wasn’t too far off with the vitamin deficiency.  
There were going to spend more time together after all this, he decided and was happy to see her face light up at his words.

“Of course,” she said. “This is my duty as a big sister. To look after my brother and protect him from premature hair loss.”

They laughed and Dipper’s chest constricted for a short moment when he looked over at Bill and saw him smile a little as well. With warmth flooding his stomach he realized that maybe it could be like this when everything was over.  
Mabel could visit more often. And Bill would be there too. Maybe they could convince Ford to lift the equation that was confining him to this place.  
It was a small hope but it was there and Dipper couldn’t stop imagining it.

There probably wasn’t any real cheese in it and the pasta tasted stale but to him it was the best meal he had had all week.

Dipper was glad he had made more food after all because when they were finished nothing was left. Mabel offered to do the dishes and although Dipper thought he should volunteer Bill, found himself content with his company after his sister had turned her back to them as she filled the sink.

He put his hand on his arms, already looking forward to another nap and carefully glanced over at Bill. He, too, seemed actually relaxed for once and Dipper wondered if it was the food or other reasons. Thinking back, he had to hide his face in the crook of his elbow, pretending to stifling a yawn. The sudden scrap of a chair made him look up. Bill had gotten to his feet, his gaze fixated onto the window.

“Something wrong?” Dipper asked, keeping his voice low to not alert Mabel.

Bill briefly glanced at him but gave no indication of what he had seen.  
Or that he was going to bolt for the door.

Dipper shot up, calling after him but was too slow to hold him back. Before he had even crossed the room, the back door was thrown open and Bill’s footfalls sounded from the porch and then disappeared. Cold dread hit Dipper like a punch. He could not let Bill run off again.  
With a racing heart he scrambled to his feet, dashed through the kitchen door and almost collided with Bill who was already on his way back again. There was no time for relief when Dipper looked down.

Bill was clutching something in his arms. Something that moved. Something alive.  
Dipper thought he saw a faint flicker of bright blue flames but it could have as well been his imagination  
When Bill stepped into the light of the kitchen, the thing in his arms struggled and a black wing lashed out. Quickly he caught it and tucked it back towards its writhing body. Shiny black and gray feathers protruded between his fingers as he held down the bird. Beady dark eyes looked around frantically and the sharp long beak aimed for vulnerable flash.  
The crow restlessly turned its head, its chest was pulsing with fear. One clawed foot found Bill’s arm and left three long scratches. He tightened his grip and the bird threw back its head, emitting a low rasping sound.

“Don’t hurt it!” Mabel said in a weak voice. She cleared her throat and came closer, curiously eying the large bird.  
“What are you doing with it?” This time her voice was more confident.

“It came through the barrier,” Bill said sharply and turned the crow over so that its claws and hacking beak pointed away from him. Its wings broke free, flapping widely as he held it up in front of his face.

“If you wanted desserts, you should have said so,” Dipper said dryly, unsure how to react to all this.

Bill glared at him and held the bird up against his forehead. As soon as feathers touch skin, the crow dropped its wings and its body went limp.  
Mabel drew a sharp breath.  
Dipper watched with growing horror as Bill put the lifeless body down onto the table. Its eyes were closed now, beak hanging open.  
Some of its feathers were scattered across the floor.

“Was this necessary?!” Mabel snapped, walking over to him. Just when had opened her mouth to what Dipper knew would have been some serious scolding, the crow’s eyes flew open and it hastily scrambled to his feet.

Mabel stared at it with surprise and relief as it shook its plumage and began grooming its tussled feathers.  
Bill gave her a smug look.  
“You were saying?”

Mabel didn’t answer, her eyes were fixed onto the bird. The crow stretched its wings, light reflecting off of them.

“I didn’t know animals couldn’t cross the barrier,” Dipper said, fascinated with the bird’s behavior. It looked completely calm now, even with humans around.  
“I thought it was just for keeping out nightmares?”  
“It is,” Bill said.  
The crow stopped its movement, turned its sleek head and hopped over to Dipper, looking up at him.  
“And it’s supposed to protect us from possessed sleepwalkers. Even if the come in the form of birds.”

Dipper’s heart sank.  
The crows black eyes reminded him of Bill’s. It cocked its head, emitting a quiet caw.

“It’s possessed?” Dipper asked, goosebumps running down his back but he couldn’t take his eyes of it.

Bill chuckled.  
“Yes… By me.”

Now Dipper looked up. Then back at the crow.  
Its beak clicked.

“Seriously?”  
He wished he had said something a little more eloquent.

“I think that if nightmares can do this, why shouldn’t I?”

Dipper swallowed. He hadn’t known Bill was able to do something like this. At least not while staying in his body. He remembered the first night with him in the house and how worried they had been he could possess them when one of them fell asleep. Had he just decided not to do it back then or a had he grown stronger since? Would he use it against them now?

Dipper held out a hand and the crow came closer curiously. It could easily slice through his skin with its sharp beak but it gently lowered its head, leaning into his fingertips. Dipper stroked the soft feathers on its head and belly, wondering if they now had to take care of it. The Mystery Shack had started accumulating an unusual amount of processed bodies.

Dipper caught a glimpse of Mabel looking between him and Bill then averted her eyes before he could read her expression. The crow tilted its head, cawed briefly and hopped back over to Bill and onto his wrist when he held it out.

“Since when can you do that?” Mabel asked as she stared at it in disbelief.

Bill shrugged. “Since right now, I guess. I haven’t really tried it like this before.”

“Why not?” Dipper asked. “You could’ve used it on the sleepwalkers.”

He initially wanted to ask why he hadn’t done it to him and Mabel but he didn’t even want to think about that possibility.

“It needs energy and I can only transmit it via seals, remember?”

“So if you make seals you could control the townspeople in place of the nightmare?” Dipper asked before his thoughts had even caught up with him.

Bill and the crow shot him a look.  
“I don’t know,” he said. “Probably. We’ll see.”

“What do you mean ‘we’ll see’?” Mabel interrupted sharply. “You’re not planning to go back and tested, are you?”

The crow fluffed its feathers.

“Want me to test it here?” Bill retorted dryly.

“I don’t want you testing this at all,” Mabel said, her gaze on the bird whose black eyes bore into hers.  
“What do you want with those poor people anyway?” she continued. “Haven’t they been through enough? Can’t you just wake them up and leave them alone?”

Bill snorted.  
“What’s good would that do? The nightmare would just trap them again. You have seen it happen yourself.”

Mabel took a breath to reply but she let it out again with a sigh and said nothing. Dipper knew her silence meant she had come to a decision on her own. She knew when there was no point in arguing.

“So you take over this zombie army,” Dipper interjected. “And then what? Conquer the world?”

“Too cliché, Pine Tree,” Bill replied, shaking his head.  
The crows suddenly flew up in a flurry of feathers. It circled the kitchen and Dipper ducked when it came directly for his face. Sharp claws dug into his skull as it landed on his head. He shut his eyes and brought up a hand, trying to get it off but was afraid of its pointed beak. He had no choice but to hold still to stop the wild flapping all the while wondering what he had said wrong.  
Bill watched him with satisfaction, a faint smirk on his face.  
Dipper felt the crow step around on his head, pulling his hair into a nest.

“Ouch, Bill,…” Dipper growled.

The other only chuckled but the bird stopped for a moment. It hopped onto Dipper’s shoulder and nipped his ear, making him wince. If Bill was going to keep pestering him with the bird, he would not allow him to keep it, Dipper decided. He was probably full of parasites already.

“Not just the world,” Bill said when the crow had settled down. “The entire dimension! And then I will rule over the most boring, most stupid, most environmentally challenged universe there is.”

Dipper stared at him, equally stunned by the possibility of Bill telling the truth and actually having made a joke. Bill threw up his arms when neither of the twins showed a reaction.  
The crow flapped its wings, feathers brushing against Dipper’s neck.  
“Okay, so what do you really want to do?” he asked.

“If I could get the sleepwalkers into a seal and possess their minds, I would not only cut of the nightmare’s energy supply,” Bill explained. “But use their life force for myself as well.”

Dipper noticed Mabel glare daggers at Bill but again she kept quiet. Perhaps she knew that even though Bill would be using the town’s inhabitants, it was also the only way to fight back. But Dipper felt a knot forming in his stomach anyway.

“And once you have enough energy,” he stated. “You’ll be able to open a portal.”

“That’s right, Bill replied triumphantly. “I take the nightmares back to their dimension and everything will be back to how it was before. Maybe even more boring.”

Dipper chewed his lip, avoiding Bill his gaze. The crow on his shoulder captured a strand of his hair and pulled playfully.

“But once there’s a portal,” Mabel suddenly said, breaking her silence. “Doesn’t that mean that you would get your full power back as well?”  
Dipper could hear how difficult it was for her to keep her voice steady.

Bill smiled at her but there was no friendliness in it.  
“All your work for nothing, is that what you’re thinking, Shooting Star?” Bill asked. “That you have no choice but to undo what you did to me nine years ago?”  
He grinned. “It really is the best kind of revenge, isn’t it?”

Mabel scowled but didn’t give him the satisfaction of reacting to that.  
“So what do we have to do?” she asked instead and Dipper could see that response threw Bill off a little. He probably had expected a more vicious reaction but Mabel was as usual unpredictable.

“Well, I propose we start small and work our way to a bigger scale,” Bill replied after a moment. 

Dipper turned his head towards the crow. It tilted its head.  
“I don’t know if a couple of birds can really help us,” he said and reached up to run his fingers over soft feathers. “Although I guess it would look kinda cool.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Bill corrected him. “Most animals are easy to control but their minds are very delicate. I was thinking more in terms of brain size.”

Dipper drew a breath.  
“So you do plan on using people?!”

“Of course. But it won’t hurt them. I promise.”

“You’re not talking about us, are you?” Dipper asked and the crow gently nipped his finger.

“I already said I needed you for something else, didn’t I?” Bill said, getting increasingly agitated. “And we’re not going into town either before anyone asks.”

He waited for the twins to interrupt but by now they knew better than to talk back.

“Good,” he sighed after a moment.  
“We leave after nightfall.”


	43. XLIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for taking so long! thank you for your patience :)

Despite their appearance and being in possession of some sort of collective mind, sleepwalkers were still people.  
People with human abilities and limitations. They could be forced to use these abilities in ways they probably wouldn’t under different circumstances but being controlled by a nightmare did not magically grant them any special powers. Which meant that their senses were still restricted to the capability of their bodies.

Or so Bill had explains to them before they had left the safety of the Shack. In other words, the sleepwalkers would not be able to see in the dark but Dipper wasn’t sure Bill realized that the same principle applied to him and Mabel.

If it hadn’t been for the lantern Bill was carrying, they would have been practically blind. The cold night lacked stars and if there was a moon its light did not reach the ground.  
However, the lantern wasn’t for them. Dipper was currently staring at it since it was the only thing his strained eyes were able to focus on. It comforted him even though it was supposed to attract sleepwalkers.

Bill had not lied when he had said they were not going into town again but he wanted to test his new powers on actual humans. The twins had been somewhat confused when they had headed for the forest shortly after the sun had set but then Dipper remembered the search party he had run into a few days ago. It made him sick to his stomach thinking about them being captured by nightmares and then aimlessly wandering the woods since then.  
Dipper listened for sounds around him, trying not to make too much noise as he watched Bill and the light he was carrying come to a halt. A short distance away from him, shrouded in darkness, was Mabel. He couldn’t see her but the notion of her presence kept the tight knot in his stomach at bay.

They still had Bill’s marks on them and even though the demon hadn’t explained it to them explicitly, they knew they were now acting as portable seals. It was a lot easier than carving eyes into trees every time they moved.  
Bill gestured them to stop and Dipper moved to the closest tree as quietly as possible. With Bill in front and Mabel on the other side they were now on the edge of an area only the demon knew existed. If it was close to the sleepwalkers or a gap or the nightmares, Dipper didn’t know. The only thing he was sure off, was that they were too far away from the Shack for his comfort and that he hated being so weak and vulnerable and dependant on Bill. He hoped at least he knew   
what he was doing.

winced when he heard the soft rush of feathers above his head. Among the trees the crow was almost invisible. It circled briefly around the illuminated area then disappeared again among the dense canopy.  
Though its vision wasn’t any better than a human's under the circumstances its greater range of motion would alert them of any unexpected - or actually expected - intruder. It’s presence was also immensely reassuring and kept them connected. Perhaps that was also a reason why Bill had brought it along.

Bill raised the lamp over his head. A signal for the twins to keep walking again. Dipper crossed to the next tree too quickly and the dry leaves crunched under his feet. When he stopped his breathing was loud in the silence.  
He could hear the rustle of Mabel’s movements not too far from him and held his breath until everything was quiet again.  
They had been walking and stopping liked this for well over an hour. At least it felt like it. More than once Dipper had been convinced Bill was leading them in circles. His feet and hands had lost feeling long ago and the cold steadily seeped through his clothes. Every time he turned to look behind his back there was only darkness. It was thick like a pillow pressed against his face. If something reached out to grab his ankle he wouldn’t have seen it coming.

It took him a lot of effort to keep breathing calmly and when he snuck over to another tree he barely kept from running. He knew it was the pull of a nightmare creeping up on them and maybe it was that knowledge that kept him safe but he didn’t know how long it would last.  
In the distance Bill put down his lamp and they stopped.

But the footsteps didn’t.

Even though they had plans to be found eventually, Dipper couldn’t help the sudden fear he felt. He knew they were only people and Bill was able to deal with them in one way or another but that didn’t stop the shivers running up and down his spine. The footsteps stopped and Dipper strained his eyes for the darkness beyond the lantern.  
Bill’s back was turned to him but even from his position and the dim light he could see the tension in it.

A numbness took over Dipper’s body that turned into cold dread as the shadows shifted and a shape emerged from the dark. At first it looked like one of the trees had started walking but when it came closer to the light, they could see what it was.

A person.

Almost two heads taller than Bill and with a body used to physically demanding labor. Dipper recognized him as one of the construction workers and a close friends of Wendy’s father. Although he couldn’t recall his name right now.  
He probably couldn’t even do that himself, Dipper thought.  
The empty look in his eyes told him he was indeed sleepwalking. Otherwise Bill would have been at a real disadvantage. He hoped that no more of his companions would show up.

A sluggish bulky arm reached forward. Bill quickly moved aside and avoided it. He stepped further out of reach but stayed close enough to keep his attention on him.  
The man followed him, his large arms grabbing only air.  
Bill picked up the lantern on his way backwards and Dipper became increasingly anxious when he realized he was luring him their way. The closer they got, shoulders hunched, arms outstretched, legs dragging across the ground, the more details Dipper noticed.  
The man’s clothes were torn on several places, long, red scratches ran along his skin, his lips were cracked by dehydration.

A bitter realization hit Dipper. He stopped seeing the sleepwalkers as enemies and started recognizing them as the victims they really were. The man here, Wendy’s father, all of them had set out to look for a missing person and now had spent several days roaming the woods controlled by an entity with no regards to their well-being. A few days longer and they would not be returning from the rescue mission at all.

Eerie shadows were cast around them as the lantern came closer. Every tree suddenly looked like a sleepwalker and every moving beam of light like a grasping hand.  
Just when Bill and his pursuer were only a few feet away from the tree Dipper was hiding behind, the sleepwalker abruptly stopped.

Dipper gasped.  
He felt like he had been punched in the stomach. All air left his lungs and he nearly toppled over as his legs gave in. With one hand he braced himself against the trunk, sensing the unusually loud pulsing of blood in his ears.  
He was certain the sleepwalker had heard him and in a few seconds large hands would close around his neck.

When nothing happened and the sickening feeling slowly subsided, he opened his eyes.  
The man was standing completely still. His eyes were fixed on Bill who was holding up his hands towards the large guy’s chest as if to physically stop him from walking any further.  
Dipper could see the strain of his muscles as the man tried to move but couldn’t.  
When he had regained complete control of his limbs again, Dipper began to understand what had happened.

Bill had used the seals on his and Mabel’s bodies and their energy to paralyze the sleepwalker. A small part of Dipper was once again angry at Bill for using them like this but even more he was grateful his plan had worked.

After one last critical look, Bill carefully stepped closer, his fingers only inches from the man’s stubbly face. Dipper knew what would happen next. He had seen it with the crow. Bill would attempt to take over his mind.   
If that was better than being controlled by a nightmare, Dipper didn’t know. But he was convinced it was the first step to getting rid of them.

He braced for another rush of nausea and energy loss as Bill leaned forward to completed the seal. A hoarse cry made them both jump.  
The crow swept past Dipper’s ear, over Bill’s head and vanished in the darkness in front of them.  
Bill stared after it. His fingers were hovering over the man’s dirty skin but he made no attempt to touch it. He seemed as immobile as the sleepwalker in front of him. Had he seen something? What was hiding in the blackness?

Instinctively Dipper slipped to the other side of the trunk, putting it between himself and the impenetrable darkness. He thought he could hear Mabel’s laboured breathing a short distance away. He tried to find her in the shadows but couldn’t.  
Keep calm, he told himself. Don’t run! The mantra played in his head automatically.  
There was no need to be worried. Bill was on their side. He had everything under control.

Movement made him turn his head and he saw Bill jump back to evade a swing of the sleepwalker’s arm. Before he could regain his balance another hit struck him across the chest and he toppled, gasping as his back hit the hard ground.  
Dipper watched, frozen in place. Wasn’t the sleepwalker supposed to be paralyzed? Had he broken Bill’s spell?

Before could get to his feet, the sleepwalker reached down and grabbed for his legs. Bill was caught off guard by the sudden turn of events and too slow to pull away at the last second. He yelled when the man’s strong hand closed around his ankle and yanked at it.  
Dipper called out to him, not caring that he presented himself as an easy target but luckily the sleepwalker paid no attention to him. With an unyielding hold he pulled Bill out of the light and into the shadows of the forest, unfazed by his furious resistance.  
He stumbled a little when Dipper’s weight slammed into him. For only a second he was distracted but it was long enough for Bill to free himself. Massive hands reached for Dipper. He could feel the sleepwalker's breath on his skin as he struggled to get up. A hard kick against the man’s elbow evoked a pained howl and earned him enough time to scramble away on all fours.  
A lot smaller but surprisingly strong hands grabbed him under the arms and pulled him upright. In the unfocused light of the swinging lantern it took him a moment to recognize that it wasn’t Bill.

“Quickly!” Mabel urged him, her breath laboured from the effort of pulling him towards the trees.  
“Where’s Bill?”

Dipper looked around. There was no sign of blonde hair anywhere. The shadows of the trees seemed to dance around them as they ran. Behind them the sleepwalker was no longer visible. He could be everywhere.

Don’t run, the voice repeated in his head but Dipper ignored it. He wasn’t running from anything. This was different.  
As if on auto-pilot he followed his sister and the light in her hand through the underbrush. Due to the lack of sunlight it didn’t grow as thickly here as on the edge of the forest but heaps of dead leaves and fallen trunks forced them to change direction more than once. He tried to make sense of what had just happened but couldn’t think of a reason why Bill would just leave them like this. They weren’t going to find him but without him their chances of getting out of the sleepwalker infested forest were as good as nonexistent. They could try climbing a tree and waiting for sunrise he thought then discarded the idea just as quickly as he looked at the tall, slim trees, their lowest branches ten feet above their heads.

They were lost, he thought and running straight for the nearest nightmare. He tried to listen for footsteps but could only hear their own. Breathing felt like inhaling fire and he could feel his pulse all the way to the tips of his fingers.

A flapping of wings above his head made him wince. The crow’s sleek body was briefly visible in the shine of the lamp before it dove into the blackness before them.  
Mabel must have seen it too and after exchanging a quick look they followed it. If the crow was here, Bill couldn’t be too far.  
Dipper looked forward to giving him a piece of his mind for abandoning them like this in the middle of the woods. He would tell him to plan more carefully next time if he wasn’t sure his powers worked properly. And he should definitely warn them when he was going to use their energy again.

Suddenly something caught his eye.  
At first Dipper thought his eyes were playing tricks on him but in the distance, partly hidden among the trees, was a faint blue light. Will-o’-the-wisp came to his mind and he wondered if great uncle Ford had covered those in his journals. Before his thought derailed further and the fact that they probably shouldn’t run towards it had completely formed, a silhouette appeared before them- A person, illuminated by the blue light.

Mabel stopped abruptly and Dipper almost crashed into her. She tried to pull him back the way they had come but Dipper had seen immediately that it was not another sleepwalker.

Bill was standing with his back to the twins, one arm raised protectively in front of him, blue flames encircling his hand.

Gently Dipper plucked Mabel’s hand from him.  
“Stay here,” he whispered.

He felt his sister’s hold on him tighten briefly before she let him go. Leaving the imagined safety of the lantern’s light, he crossed over the small clearing.

Bill must have heard him approach but did not turn. He was standing completely still as if listening for something. When Dipper got closer he saw the slight tremor of his hand and the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Sweat stood on his forehead and with unblinking eyes he stared into the darkness before him.

We’re going to be attacked, Dipper thought and expected the forest to burst into movement any second. Holding his breath he waited for the inevitable. The smoke-like fire encircling Bill’s hand was reassuring. After all, it had proven to be quite successful in fighting sleepwalkers. He hoped they did not have to find out how useless it was when it came to nightmares.  
Seconds passed and nothing happened. Dipper feared Bill had turned into a sleepwalker too. But that was stupid. He did not have a human mind so nightmares could not take possession of him.  
The cry of the crow echoed in the distance.  
Bill’s face was pale and tense with fear.  
Dipper quietly said his name but got no reaction.

Had he looked like this too when he had fought his first nightmare, he asked himself. Only faintly he recalled the events of that night. Back then he hadn’t even known how dangerous all of this really was. He wouldn’t have made it if Bill had not followed him. If he hadn’t helped him overcome his fears. So it was time to return the favor, Dipper decided and reached for Bill’s other hand. He wasn’t sure it would actually help but he guessed it showed that he did not have to fight alone.

He couldn’t remember if his fingers actually touched skin.  
Too many things happened at once. And too fast.

A blinding light forced his eyes closed. The flapping of wings sounded above his head. There was a sense of falling. Of losing the attachment to his own body. Like anticipating the pain of a stubbed toe. Only worse.  
He could feel every beat of his heart with frightening clarity. Every molecule of air that was dragged into his lungs. The force of gravity on his skin.  
After a moment it was a futile as fighting the pull of sleep. And eventually he was forced to give in.

It took a long time before Dipper could open his eyes again. Or maybe no time at all. Except for a small, blurry light it was still dark around him. He could make out twigs and pine needles and figured he was still in the forest. On its ground to be precise if the pain on the side of his body was any indication.

Blinking slowly, some more things came into focus. A long broken branch, a small patch of mushrooms and a pile of some black thing that he had mistaken for leaves before.  
But it wasn’t.  
It was feathers.

Then Dipper noticed a clawed foot, a long sharp beak hanging open and a black eye, reflecting the shine of the lantern on the ground next to him. A gust of air rustled the crows disheveled wings. Other than that there was no movement.  
Dipper wanted to reach for it but his body wouldn’t respond. The crow’s empty gaze was haunting. It meant something terrible had happened. Something that his slow brain couldn’t yet comprehend. He knew it had to do with why he was currently lying on his stomach on the forest floor, unable to move, a chill spreading in his chest.  
At least he wasn’t in pain. Although, he had the feeling he should be. Perhaps he was dying.

Fingers pressed against his throat and he coughed. The rush of air stung in his chest and his diaphragm cramped. When had he stopped breathing? The hunger for air shook his body but his throat was too tight. He inhaled dust, panicking, felt his stomach clench painfully. He was between throwing up and choking. If he hadn’t felt like dying before, he did know.

The soothing touch retreated to his shoulder and stayed there for comfort. Now the rest of Dipper sensors slowly returned.  
He heard his name. Mabel’s voice.  
His breathing eased a little but his heart was still going a mile a minute. He waited a moment for his head to clear before he turned it.

Despite the low light, relief was clear on Mabel’s face. She said something that Dipper didn’t comprehend and got to her feet. A short distance away she kneeled again and when Dipper’s stiff neck had managed to turn the other direction he saw Bill crouched on the ground.  
His chest was heaving and his whole back trembled. Dipper had never seen him like this before. He had to be hurt. Badly by the looks of it.

Bill turned a little when Mabel approached but flinched when she moved to touch him.   
Dipper’s breath stopped when Bill’s gaze met his. The display of so much raw emotion almost made him averted his eyes but at the same time he couldn’t do anything but stare.  
Bill had made sure not to show much of what he was thinking or how he felt so seeing him so openly express shock, sadness and guilt was almost too much to handle.

It only lasted for a second but it was enough to make Dipper feel incredibly uncomfortable. Like he had been intruding on something private, something he hadn’t been supposed to witness.  
A coughing fit rattled his body. His eyes watered and when he had regained his vision Bill was no longer looking his way. Dipper even doubted he had done so in the first place.

Mabel came back and dropped to her knees next to him, helping him turn onto his back. Lifting the pressure of his bruised side was a relief. After another moment he was able to sit up without the world spinning around him. When he tried to stand his vision narrowed for a moment but after a few deep breaths he managed to walk with Mabel’s support. His legs were weak, like he had just run a marathon, or taken a hot bath for too long, or lain on the cold ground for hours. He could still do with a bath, he thought. And some sleep. He was exhausted.  
No wonder Bill felt so guilty, he realized. He must have taken more of his life force again. But what for? He hadn’t seen any sleepwalkers.

“Get us out of here,” Mabel demanded and Dipper took a moment to realized she wasn’t talking to him.

Wordlessly Bill took the lantern from her and began to walk. He didn’t look back at them but moved slowly enough so they could keep up. Dipper wanted to ask what had happened but the tension among them kept him quiet.  
Even without talking he knew that it had not worked out the way Bill had planned.  
Something had gone terribly wrong.


	44. XLIV

According to Mabel Bill had had some sort of panic attack. That’s what she told him after Dipper had asked what happened when she had woken him from where he had fallen asleep on the kitchen table.  
They both did not really believe it.  
Mabel was convinced it was part of a scheme to regain his power. He had used some of Dipper’s energy to shoot blue flames at nothing. Or at least nothing Mabel could see or sense, and he hadn’t stopped until she had tackled him to the ground.  
Dipper kind of wished he hadn’t missed that.

But the question remained what and why it had happened in the first place. Bill had been so sure of himself and of his plan to take control of the sleepwalkers that they hadn’t doubted him.  
In a corner of his mind Dipper felt a nagging realization grow, but refused to let it form completely before he wasn’t absolutely sure.  
If it turned out he was right, they had lost the fight before it had even started. But being uncertain about it was equally dangerous. There was no other way but to confront Bill about it. Honesty was the least of what he owed him now after knocking him out like that.

“He’s on the roof,” Mabel replied to his question.

“The roof?”

“I don’t know what he’s doing up there...but he refuses to talk. He’s in a bad mood.”

Dipper, who did not find it difficult to imagine Bill like that, got up anyway. For a moment his vision faded to black as his circulation took a little longer to adjust and he placed his hands on the table to steady himself.

“Maybe wait till tomorrow?” Mabel tried again, offering a hand.  
Dipper brushed it aside with a smile that he hoped looked encouraging. He didn’t want her to think that maybe they did not have this much time left.

“If he doesn’t want to talk, perhaps he’ll listen,” he said.

Mabel didn’t move, blocking his way around the table.  
“Didn’t we agree to not be alone with him anymore?” There was something else below the gentleness of her voice.

“I don’t think he’ll try anything. He needs us.”  
Dipper stepped around her and this time she didn’t interfere. Before he reached the door to the living room his sister spoke again.

“I don’t want you near him.”

The words stopped Dipper in his tracks more efficiently than a physical barrier.  
Slowly he turned.  
Mabel’s lips were pressed tightly, her fists clenched at her sides.

“I thought you were dead.”

Dipper’s head began to feel very light. His sister’s stare made him feel sick to the point where he didn’t know if he should hug her or run away.  
He had lost consciousness but he hadn’t thought about how it must have looked to Mabel. He recalled the burning hunger for air. He had stopped breathing.

“Mabel, I’m-.” He stopped. What was he supposed to say? Fine? Sorry? Alive?  
He was lost for words.

“It’ll only be a minute”, he managed in the end. “I have to check something.”

Mabel sighed.  
“Alright. You can try…” She wanted him to hear the implication that he would not have more luck than her.  
“I’ll get you if you take too long,” she added. It was not an offer.  
“And when you come back I have to show you something.”

Dipper nodded but his thoughts were already elsewhere. He felt her gaze on him when he walked out the room.

He crossed the living room, entered the gift shop and found the curtain in the corner moved aside and Wendy’s secret ladder to the roof exposed. He didn’t know if Bill had found it on his own or Mabel had used it to climb up after him.  
What could he possibly want up there anyway? If he wanted to escape like last time he just needed to go through the front door.  
Dipper climbed the ladder slowly, pausing at the top to catch his breath. His body was complaining about the exercise already. Pushing against the hatch with his shoulders, he felt the night air rush at him. Carefully he slipped through the gap and onto the roof.  
The night was brighter than he had expected. A handful of stars cast a pleasant glow onto the Shack. Everything beyond - the ground, the woods - was hidden in complete darkness.  
Quietly he quietly closed the hatch behind him and jumped when something next to him moved.

“Leave me alone.”

Dipper had been under the impression that he wanted to demand answers from Bill.  
Or keep an eye on him so he wouldn’t run off again or try executing one of his poorly developed plans by himself. But as soon as he saw him sitting on the edge of the roof, looking small and defeated, he realized that he really just wanted to be near him.  
So he disregarded his rather hostile greeting.

“Do you want my sweater?” he asked on an impulse. He remember the numerous times Bill had demanded his clothes.  
The other’s only response was a glare.  
“But it’s cold,” Dipper insisted.

Bill scoffed. “No, it’s not.”  
He crossed his arms over his knees and stared at the dark forest.

For a long while neither of them talked. Dipper almost didn’t dare breathing. There was something wrong with Bill. Something that weighed so heavily on him that Dipper could feel it in the night air around them.

Bill suddenly sighed and broke the growing tension.  
“Come to yell at me too?”

Dipper’s head whipped around to him.  
“What? Mabel yelled at you?”

Bill gave a humorless laugh.  
“That is an understatement,” he said then quietly added. “Scared the crap out of me.”

Dipper had never heard Bill talk like that and for a second wondered if he meant it literally. He had experienced a furious Mabel on only a few occasions and could only imagine what it must have been like to the other. It wasn’t the yelling per se that created such an impact but the underlying accusations of her words that cut deep in the right places. Dipper debated to ask Bill what she had said to him exactly but doubted he would relay it to him willingly.  
Maybe all that had been the reason Bill had fled to the roof in the first place.

“She was just worried about me,” Dipper explained in an attempt to justify any harsh treatment.

Bill turned his head away. “Yeah, I know.”

Dipper swallowed. The line between comforting and prying was thin and he didn’t want to upset Bill further. Mabel’s words seemed to have really gotten to him.  
He thought about leaving him to his thoughts if he didn’t wish for company but Bill continued on his own.

“Understandable, though,” he said. “Since I nearly killed you.”

Dipper tensed.  
“What do you mean?” he asked, a little louder than necessary. Breathing deeply he tried to get his voice under control.  
“I just fainted because you took my energy.”

Bill made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh.  
“Yeah, but… I almost took too much.”

“Too much?” Dipper repeated and the words rang in his head. He thought Bill was looking at him but it was too dark to see his face. His silence was answer enough.  
A sudden image took over Dipper’s mind.  
The crow. Broken feathers, dull black eyes.  
He felt the tiles moving beneath his feet and quickly sat down to keep from possibly falling off the roof.

He should have known there wasn’t an endless supply of life force but he hadn’t thought about the consequences of going over the limit. It simply hadn’t occurred to him that Bill was not as capable of controlling his powers as well as he had wanted them to believe. He had always expected that getting hurt would happen in a fit of rage or as a threat. Never as a simple accident.  
It only fueled his suspicion. And now was the perfect time to confront Bill with it.

“Tell me what happened,” Dipper demanded when he knew his voice would sound calm enough.

Bill was quiet for a long moment but Dipper was patient. He was exceptionally tired but he could be up here all night if he had to. There was something he had to know. Maybe even something he had to hear.

“When we caught the sleepwalker, I used some of yours and Shooting Star’s energy to incapacitate him. Added to my own, I thought it would be enough to take over his mind but..,” He trailed off and gestured vaguely into the air.

Dipper looked at him, waiting for more.

“It takes more taking possession of a human than a bird, you know,” Bill added quietly.

Dipper crosse his arms. He could see his silence made the other nervous.  
Believing that Bill had run out of energy was easy. But his reasoning was a lie. Dipper had felt the moment he had tapped into his energy. And he had also felt the connection through the seal break when Bill had lost his concentration. He hadn’t run out of energy. Not then.

“Nightmares don’t affect everyone equally, right?”

Bill looked confused for a second at Dipper’s seemingly unrelated question. Then he tensed.

“When we found Mabel in the middle of the road…,” he continued and was surprised how difficult it was to imagine the hot sun at a night as cold as this one. “She was trapped in a nightmare while I barely felt it. At least in the beginning.”

He saw the slight, uncomfortable shift in Bill’s shoulders. How easy to read he was all of a sudden.

“And in the supermarket,” he continued. “The nightmare there had more influence on me than on Mabel.”  
He tapped a thoughtful finger against his cheek as if to think of his next words.  
“Nightmares target our fears and seek out the one most susceptible to them. Mabel is afraid of heights. I’m afraid of the dark.”  
He paused.  
“What are you afraid of? What did you see?”

He could almost see the tension rising around them. He had hit a sensitive spot. Now he was sure Bill would either jump off the roof or physically attack him to avoid this conversation.  
After taking a deep, quiet breath, however, Bill had himself under control again.  
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said calmly. “Nightmares latch onto human minds, Pine Tree. And I don’t have one.”

The use of his nickname and the relaxed voice irritated Dipper. But he clearly remembered the panicked look on his face.  
“Then what were you fighting?”

“I wasn’t fighting anything.”  
The impassive voice again. But it had become slightly more annoyed.

“You ran out of energy because you were shooting flames at trees.”  
Dipper wouldn’t budge. Bill was trying to keep up an act and he would tear right through it.

“How would you know? You were unconscious.”  
A slight angry tremor.

“I felt it too” Dipper continued. “But the nightmare must have focused on you. I was going to help you. I wanted to-.”

“What?! Throw me to the ground?” Definitely louder now.

Dipper was calm. “No.”  
He glanced down at his own hand, wondering what exactly he had hoped to achieve.

Bill followed his gaze then slammed a hand against the roof. Dipper jumped at the hollow sound.  
“There’s nothing you could have done. I used up all my energy. Then the bird’s. Then yours.” Bill was yelling now.  
“I wasted it on things that weren’t real because I‘ve been trapped in this fucking flesh bag way too long and if I don’t get out of it soon I’ll never get back and I will die and rot like the rest of you stupid meat sacks.”

He clapped a hand over his face in a futile attempt to take back what had left his mouth and turned away.  
Dipper, who had never heard Bill curse like that, stood motionless. He had suspected that Bill’s pseudo-human existence would have an influence on his mind sooner or later. He had wanted to confirm for himself that Bill was not immune to nightmares anymore.  
But he hadn’t thought about any other consequences. If Bill’s mind began to fuse with the body he possessed, he was forced to live like an ordinary human. And face the end like one.  
What a loss for an immortal demon.

And what a loss for him and Mabel when their only hope of defeating the nightmares could be turned into a mindless sleepwalker just as easily as them.  
He no longer wondered why Bill wanted to open a portal and end all this as quickly as possible. They were not only running out of time. But also out of options very quickly.

Dipper had snuck over to Bill’s side without either of them noticing. He had come for answers not to comfort, but pity and guilt were nagging at him. Reaching out he moved to lay a hand onto his shoulder, physical contact, just a simple gesture of empathy.

“Don’t touch me!”  
Bill’s head snapped around and Dipper’s hand stopped in mid-air. Quickly he pulled it back. There was anger in Bill’s voice but also something else that kept Dipper from leaving his side.  
Bill glared at him a moment longer, making sure he wouldn’t try to breach the distance between them again, then relaxed his posture.

“I want to make another deal.”

Dipper let out a breath with a huff. “We never made one.”

“A real one this time then,” Bill insisted.

“So you can take all my energy when it’s convenient for you?”  
Bill hesitated and Dipper immediately regretted his words. He hadn’t meant to sound so caustic but every time Bill talked like that it stirred an inexplicable anger inside him. If he wanted something he didn’t have to propose deals or threaten him. He could just ask.

Dipper sat down next to Bill to show he was going to listen.  
“What do you want?” he asked, pretending he hadn’t said his last comment. He tried to sound friendlier, open to suggestions.

Bill eyed him warily.   
“The seal you have on you,” he said, weighing his words. “I’ll take it from you.”

Unaware of the movement, Dipper placed a hand over his thigh.  
“Why?”  
It was not like he wanted it to stay, but for Bill to offer something like that so generously made him suspicious. He would lose the advantages of a portable seal and his control over their life force. It was the complete opposite of what Dipper had just accused him of.

The question, however, seemed to annoy Bill. He took a deep breath before he spoke again.  
“Because it’s dangerous. I still need you...both of you, I mean...and I can’t risk anything happening again.”

“You panicking and wasting your energy?”

“And taking it from you by accident.”

Dipper sneered. “So you’re just looking out for me, huh?”

“You want to end up like the crow?!”  
Bill’s words had the right effect. But not necessarily for the reason he had intended.

Dipper froze. His anger had completely slipped away. A strange, heavy feeling had replaced it. Bill was willing to give up his power over them in order to protect them. It was as close to admitting defeat as he would get.  
Now that he was closer, Dipper could see the stern expression on the other’s face. Bill held his stare for a moment longer before he scoffed and turned away.  
Dipper had to fight the rising urge to take him in his arms. Even if it would result in physical, painful rejection. But maybe it wouldn’t. Still, he didn’t dare trying to touch him again.

“What do you want in return?” he asked instead.

Bill glanced in his direction.  
“You will help me open a portal tomorrow,” he said calmly. “And you will not try to interfere. Same goes for Shooting Star.”

“Then you take her seal as well?”

“Of course,” Bill replied quickly. “That means no more exorcism. Even attempted ones. Are we clear?”

Dipper couldn’t suppress a small smile. Then he remembered that it could be difficult to convince Mabel of that. She would eventually find something else she could try in one of her books.

“So?” Bill held out his hand. “Deal?”

“Can I have some time to think about it?” Dipper asked, taken aback. He expected blue flames swirling around the other’s fingers but there were none.

“I don’t think we have that kind of time,” Bill said in a low voice.

“But-...,” Dipper struggled to find the right words. “Why do we have to make a deal for all that? Can’t we just - … I don’t know… agree on it. We already said we’d help you open a portal. We want the nightmares gone just as much as you. And-... you can take away the seals anyway if you’re so worried about them, can’t you?”

For a second Dipper was convinced Bill would blow up in his face. He balled his hand into a fist and the light vanished. Then he sighed and all the tension left him.  
When he talked his voice was calm.  
“Because it’s not just about the seals.”

He adjusted himself so he faced Dipper. He leaned a little closer, his legs folded under him but was careful not to come in contact with him.  
“By marking you with a seal I created a connection between the three of us. You and your sister already had a very strong bond, so all I had to do was form a link that included myself.”

Dipper nodded, itching to ask questions but biting his tongue.

“Now in this dimension it’s not only these connections that create a flow of life force. It’s also the other way round.”  
He waited a moment to see if he got interrupted.

“Does that mean even if you remove the seal, there’s still some energy connecting us?” Dipper asked.

“It means I created a connection long before I even thought about the seals,” Bill explained. “When I came here to look for a way to get back to my dimension,” he continued. “I thought staying in a human body and living a human life for a short while would not harm me. I needed your life force to heal, so whenever I demanded food, or your clothes, or just your attention, I took some of it.”

Dipper remember the times he had felt exhausted after interacting with Bill and how he had blamed it on their situation.

“That’s how you humans work,” Bill explained before Dipper could ask.  
“Caring about others uses up energy, being cared for replenishes it. Even if it’s just bandaging wounds or setting out a glass of water.”

Dipper could feel heat rush into his face and was glad it was so dark. He had worried about ulterior motives but had done these things without thinking.

“Imagine an office worker,” Bill continued, “...who pours all his energy into his job yet receives no rewards or appreciation. He’s exhausted and angry and unhappy with his life.  
A nurse, on the other hand, who experiences joy and gratitude when working with her patients earns as much energy as she gives and enjoys her life a lot more.”

Bill gave him a moment to think about those stereotypes and Dipper found himself thinking about the times in his life when Mabel, no matter how annoyed or over-worked he had been after classes, had always found a way to turn his mood completely around.

“It also works with relationship,” Bill went on, as if reading his thoughts. “A deep friendship or a loving family creates a mutual exchange of energy. Whereas something like unrequited love or holding a grudge against someone drains it.”

Dipper swallowed.  
“Unrequited?”

Bill seemed to not have heard.  
“If I remove the seal the connection will be weakened and I will not be able to forcefully take any more life force from you. Or your sister. Agreed?”

Dipper ignored the hole that had opened in his chest.  
“So you don’t need our energy to create a portal? What happens afterwards?”

“Afterwards?”

“When you opened it and the nightmares-...,” Dipper tried to explain but his voice failed him.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Bill said. “I already promised I’d send the nightmares back to their realm. And after that I’ll return to my own dimension.”

Dipper cleared his throat but his voice sounded thick.  
“So basically I’ll agree on you not killing us accidentally.”  
The crow was once again on his mind.

Bill shrugged.

“Guess I don’t have much of a choice then, huh?”  
Dipper was the first one to hold out his hands this time.

Bill reached for it with his left hand, however, and gently took his wrist. With his right he pointed to Dipper’s leg who pulled it up onto the roof and in the small space between them. Bill placed his hand on his skin just like he had done when he had marked him with his seal only a few days ago. Dipper’s skin began to prickle as soon as Bill touched it but it was probably only his imagination. Waiting for something to happen, he realized they were still missing a third point of contact.

Bill looked at him as if waiting for something. Dipper noticed the tension in his jaw and the small crease between his brows when he leaned closer. His irises were almost entirely black in the low light. They disappeared from view when he closed his eyes.  
Dipper brought up his free hand and carefully slid his fingers along Bill’s cheek and into his hair, his thumb brushing against the shell of his ear.

As soon as their lips touched the uncomfortable sensation of drowning in hot water burst inside his head. It tightened his chest and took his breath. A sharp sting bore into his thigh but Dipper didn’t move. For what felt like minutes but could only have been a handful of seconds he endured it, distracting himself by focusing solely on Bill and the slow movement of their mouths as they kissed.

The pain and discomfort soon ebbed away but Dipper held onto Bill, drawing out the moment as long as possible. In regards to what the other had said earlier, he didn’t know if he would get anything like this ever again.

Bill’s hand stayed on his wrist, the other was lifted from his leg and reappeared on his shoulder. Dipper let out a breath when it pulled him closer. Despite the freezing air his body radiated heat and Dipper wanted nothing more than to curl up in it until everything was over.

The hinges on the roof behind them creaked and they broke apart. Bill quickly pulled his hands away but Dipper’s stayed a little longer until the other pushed it away.

“Dipper, you okay?”  
Mabel’s head and arm appeared from below as she pushed open the hatch.

“Yeah I’m… good,” Dipper replied, getting to his feet. The quick movement made him dizzy for a second. Had he really been up here this long that his sister had come to check on him?  
“I’ll be down in a minute.”

Mabel shot him a stern look, completely disregarding Bill.  
“It’s late,” she stated, looking at him expectantly.

Dipper gave in.  
He sighed quietly and glanced back at Bill. With the light at his back he was just a shape in the darkness.  
“Good night,” he said quietly and without thinking.  
Bill didn’t reply.

Dipper climbed down the ladder after Mabel, closing the hatch behind him. They crossed the gift shop, living room and kitchen without talking. The silence worried Dipper and as they climbed the stairs to their bedroom he knew something was on his sister’s mind.

“What was it that you wanted to talk about?” he asked. His head was feeling heavy and he would have been grateful for some distraction.

Mabel paused at the landing and turned to him. Away from Bill’s presence she was more relaxed.  
“I’ll tell you tomorrow, okay? It’s been a long day and you look exhausted. Get some rest first. ”

Dipper wanted to disagree but couldn’t find the strength. There was so little time left but hiding under a blanket and escaping into the merciful oblivion of sleep had never sounded better.  
He just nodded.

There was also a lot he had to tell her. About energy, nightmares, the seal on her body, the deal he had made. He should have been happy about all the information he had gathered but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had also lost something.


	45. XLV

“You didn’t agree, did you?”  
Mabel’s voice had risen even though Dipper had explicitly told her to keep it down at the start of their conversation.  
“Tell me you didn’t make that deal!”

“Mabel, be quiet! I told you I didn’t have a choice!”

She threw up her hands in exasperation.  
“I knew I shouldn’t have let you talk to him.”

Dipper growled. “What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t patronize me!”

Mabel winced.  
“No, Dipper-… sorry I-...that came out wrong. It’s just-...” She sighed then grabbed a strand of her long hair and started twirling it between her fingers. A nervous habit.

“He didn’t leave me a choice, Mabel! I couldn’t let him keep stealing energy from us. He said he almost took all of mine and you saw what happened!”

Dipper had tried to gently break it to his sister that Bill was not only gradually turning into a human, but that he was also taking precautions for any plans Mabel had so meticulously prepared. As expected she had not taken it well.  
He had told her about the removal of the seal in as little detail as possible but had put emphasis on everything Bill had said about the nightmares and the deal.

“But wouldn’t that put him at a huge disadvantage?”  
Mabel’s question was not particularly directed at Dipper so he chose to stay quiet.  
“I mean… if he willingly gave up a source of power then-... “ She paused and a shadow crossed her face.  
“What if it’s a trap?”

Dipper sucked in a breath, hoping Mabel hadn’t noticed his sudden tension. The possibility of Bill tricking them - again - had only faintly grazed his thoughts. But he hadn’t seen any reason for that. He had felt the pain in his leg, the energy he had used on him.  
And he had seemed so guilty, so scared.  
Dipper felt his guts turn into ice. He should have seen through the act.

“What if it wasn’t about the seal,” Mabel continued, twisting more hair into the growing knob in her hands. “I think it was an elaborate threat to keep us in line.”  
She shot Dipper a long look.  
“He realized simple violence wouldn’t get him what he wanted. So he made you feel sorry for him. And made you promise not to get in his way by using our safety as leverage.”

“Okay,” Dipper said but he hadn’t really been listening. The hole in his stomach ate up any sense of accomplishment. He couldn’t understand why Mabel looked so excited all of a sudden.

“Don’t you see?” she said, pouncing of the bed and pushing up the too-long sleeves of her pink pyjama. “We are a threat to him now. He knows we could seriously harm him. That’s why he tried to make sure we wouldn’t.”  
She tapped her chin thoughtfully when Dipper still didn’t show any sign of understanding.  
“Did you shake on it?”

“What?”

“When you made the deal,” Mabel inquired. “Did you shake his hand?”

Dipper swallowed. “...No...not really.”

“What do you mean ‘not really’? Did you shake his hand or not? Were there blue flames? Was he laughing maniacally?”

Dipper quickly drew back his fingers from his wrist where Bill had held him.  
“No.”

Mabel hummed thoughtfully but she seemed immensely pleased with that answer.  
“So chances are you didn’t make any deal at all.”

“Mabel…”

“No, no, I know. We can’t take any risks but maybe I’m right and he just did something for effect. What makes you so sure he removed the seal anyway? What if he added another?”

Dipper smoothed out the wrinkles on his sheets. He did not want to answer.  
Truth was, he couldn’t know. He had just trusted Bill with what he had said. In the calm morning light it was easy to see his stupidity.

“All I’m saying is we should be careful.”  
Mabel’s voice was calmer now, almost soothing. She must have seen what effect her words had on her brother. “I’m sorry for getting angry. I know it’s not your fault. Bill is extremely manipulative. The same could have happened to me.”

Dipper doubted it but nodded appreciatively anyway.

“Now. I know my last experiment with exorcism didn’t work too well…,” She grinned sheepishly. “But I found something else and with your help we can do it.”

She walked back to her nightstand and pulled one of the journals from the drawer. Dipper was glad she had momentarily turned her back so he had time to get his shocked expression under control again. He had thought they had lost any chance of ever standing up to Bill but apparently Mabel didn’t give up so easily.

After flipping through the book she held out a page to him. Its edges were charred but the writing was mostly intact. I the middle was the picture of a gun-like object with a light bulb at its end. It was the instructions to the memory gun which had defeated Bill last time.  
It didn’t make sense.

“How’s that gonna help us?” Dipper asked. “We don’t have it any more.”  
He thought he remember Mabel as the one who broke it back then but he knew it was not a good idea to bring that up now.

“But we can build another. With this!”  
Mabel’s face quickly turned into a frown at the lack of Dipper’s excitement.

“Even if we had the material,” Dipper said carefully. “And the tools. It would still take too long. And we don’t know if it would even work on him.”

Mabel closed the book with a thud.  
“Why wouldn’t it? It’s better to wipe his memories than killing him.”

Dipper realized she was talking about the original owner of Bill’s body. He kept forgetting about that.

“Here’s the plan,” Mabel continued, oblivious to Dipper’s inner turmoil. “Before Bill can even think about going back he has to restore balance between the dimensions. Or he would just slip through the holes again, right?”

Dipper attempted a shrug.

“So he has to close all the gaps first. Which takes energy. But he gets it from sending back nightmares, that’s how he’s been getting most of his powers until now. Are you still following?”

Dipper who still didn’t know what her point was, nodded faintly.

“It means he will send back all the nightmares and close the gaps. And then - with his newly acquired energy - he will open his own portal to the mindscape. And that’s where we have to strike. Understood?”

This time she didn’t wait for an answer or approving gesture.

“I still have to figure out the details but I thought knocking him over the head or something would be a good start. We could keep him drugged and unconscious, trap him in his body. And then we’ll just have to wait for great uncle Ford and he’ll help us build the memory gun. What do you say?”

Dipper was speechless. It took him a moment to take it all in. He couldn’t believe Mabel was suggesting to betray Bill like that. On the other hand, however, he would probably do the same if he had the chance. It was Bill after all. He tried to keep that in mind.

“Let’s say this works,” Dipper started slowly. “What do we do afterwards? We used the gun on Bill once already and it didn’t destroy him.”

“I don’t plan to destroy him with it,” Mabel quickly explained. “Just scatter his energy again. It gives us another couple years to figure out how to get rid of him for good.”

“You think that’s a good idea?”  
Dipper winced at the look he got and wished he had phrased it differently.  
“No, I’m all for banishing the nightmares and everything but -... I just-... you know there’s this theory that everyone has their purpose. Maybe it’s Bill’s purpose to watch over the mindscape and keep the nightmares in check. You know they aren’t evil per se. Just when they’re out of control.”

“And that would be totally fine if everyone stayed where they belong,” Mabel said between gritted teeth. “But now that they decided to take over our world this is not something we can really take into account.”

“But-...”

“Remember what happened last time Bill gained power in this dimension! You want another apocalypse happening?”  
Mabel’s voice had risen but she quickly contained herself.  
“Maybe this is what he wanted all along. Maybe he’s controlling the nightmares and this is all just a huge setup for his revenge!”

“No, it’s not, Mabel-...”

“How do you know? And why do you keep defending him? You hate him the most!”

There must have been something in Dipper’s expression because Mabel abruptly stopped her rant. She exhaled and all the anger left her. Suddenly she looked very tired, not exhausted but weak as if after a long illness.

“Sorry,” she said quietly. “I know this isn’t easy and you need time to think. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

Dipper shook his head. “It’s okay. I-...” He swallowed thickly.  
“A few days ago I would have done anything to get back at Bill but-...”

Mabel waited patiently but he couldn’t say it. He didn’t even know what he wanted to say. Keeping secrets from Mabel could be a weak spot but he was unable to find the right words. It was especially difficult since he didn’t know what the right words for this situation were in the first place. His thoughts were running amok in his head.  
Perhaps they wouldn’t have to force Bill to stay. He could get used to living as a human. It would take a lot of convincing and a heap of forged documents but it was possible.

It would have been a huge relief for Dipper to voice these thoughts but he couldn’t. He just stared at Mabel hoping she would guess, tell him she had known all along and be completely understanding. That’s what she usually did. But he couldn’t be expecting that this time.

“I just want this to be over,” he said finally.

He had the feeling Mabel wanted to inquire further but she didn’t ask any more questions.  
“Yeah, me too,” she agreed after taking another deep breath.  
“Let’s go get some breakfast.”

 

***

The first thing they noticed when they came down the stairs were the numerous sheets of paper strewn across the kitchen table. They were covered in thick black lines which merged into a mess of intersecting lines and random patterns. At a second glance they seemed awfully familiar but Mabel’s sharp intake of breath made him jump.

“What are you doing?!”

Only now did Dipper notice Bill hunched over an almost empty sheet, a black marker in one hand, a dash of red in the other. Slowly he lifted his head to look at them.

“Preparing,” he said curtly then dabbed the pen into the cut on his left hand and kept working on his drawing. The line started out red then quickly turned to black and he repeated the process. The knife next to him had already turned a sickening shade of dark brown.

Dipper shuddered. How long had he been working on this already? Had he even slept? He would get an infection if he kept drawing with his own blood like this.  
The charred corners and paper yellowed with age caught his eye and Dipper wondered how he hadn’t seen it before. He tugged at the page which had been stolen from his journal. He had completely forgotten about it.  
The portal instructions. All three double pages of them were here.  
Before he could comment on it Bill’s hand slammed down on it and he quickly pulled it out of Dipper’s reach. His palm left a bloody print.

Dipper rolled his eyes and joined Mabel who was searching the cupboards for something edible. They was one packet of cereal left but no milk. In the fridge Dipper found two cans of soda, one egg and a dehydrated apple. He was just wondering if they could heat up some pizzas from the freezer when Mabel held out a packet of porridge.

“Better than nothing,” Dipper commented, wrinkling his nose.

“Don’t complain. It’s good for you,” Mabel said and went to heat up some water on the stove.

Dipper debated adding some of the leftover cereal as he unsuccessfully looked for jam or frozen fruit. In the end he opted for the apple. Its outer layer was wrinkled but other than that it looked passable. He wondered what kind of fruit Bill liked or if he would only drink coffee in the morning anyway and quickly extinguished the thought.  
He sliced the apple and distributed it equally among three bowls then halted.  
Bill had said doing things like this transferred energy.  
Carefully he glanced over his shoulder to the table where Bill was still frantically drawing random lines with a mixture of ink and blood. He hadn’t slept and if he didn’t eat either, his body would be too weak for the task ahead.  
So Dipper ignored the glare he received when he placed a bowl of hot, sugary porridge in front of him.

“It’s good for you,” he repeated Mabel’s words.

Bill’s stare softened the slightest bit and Dipper pretended not to have noticed. He leaned against the wall to eat his own breakfast, peering out the small window so he didn’t have to look at anything else.  
It should have been a bright, hot summer day but the sun was as dim as early winter morning, leaving the woods in constant gloomy darkness. The sky was a thick blanket of gray clouds and the glass of the window was cold with the chilly air pressed against it. A large black bird briefly circled the tree tops before gliding out of view and Dipper hoped it was the crow from yesterday. And he hoped it wasn’t.  
A sudden chill shook his shoulders and he tore his eyes away from the woods, unmoving in the still air. His porridge tasted sweet but stale, yet he forced it down before he felt too sick to eat.

“Care to let us in on your plan?” Mabel asked suddenly, startling him.

Bill turned around to her. A trail of blood ran all the way down to his elbow, staining the paper beneath.

“I’m going to open a portal to the nightmare realm.”

Dipper almost dropped his bowl.  
Mabel tensed visibly, eyes widening.

Bill grinned at their reaction and turned to his breakfast.  
“Until yesterday I thought it was enough to just close the gaps to the mindscape,” he continued, poking the porridge with his spoon. “But since they keep coming back I figured there’s a larger gap somewhere preventing me from really solving the problem.”  
He calmly chewed on a spoonful of food, clearly uncertain if he liked it or not.  
“So I’m going to send them back to the realm directly. That gives me enough time to close all interdimensional rifts and regain control over the mindscape in the meantime.”

“And where will you get all that energy from?” Mabel asked, taking a threatening step closer.

Bill kept eating calmly.  
“The sleepwalkers.”

Dipper could practically feel the moment Mabel snapped. She quickly put her bowl onto the counter with a loud clang to prevent her from throwing it and planted herself in front of Bill who hastily swallowed his food.

“Are you kidding me?” she almost yelled. “You want to open a portal to the freaking NIGHTMARE realm?! This is the exact opposite of what you should do! And what sleepwalkers? You didn’t even manage to capture a single one of them! Let alone take their energy! And you expect us to stand there and do nothing?!”

Before Dipper could hold her back, Bill had risen from his chair.

“You asked what my plan was and I told you,” he said, voice steady. “I know it’s far too difficult for you to understand.”

Mabel was fuming.  
“If you’re so smart then you should have known we wouldn’t help you with that! We’re not going to be your puppets any longer!”

For an excruciatingly long moment it seemed they were going to fight.  
Bill raised his hands and before Mabel could react, placed them on either of her shoulders. Dipper could see the revulsion in her face at the unwanted touch. She opened her mouth to protest when Bill leaned down and brought their foreheads together.  
Mabel gasped, her face distorting in pain. Dipper leapt forward but before he even reached him, Mabel had freed herself. With an angry snarl she shoved Bill backwards, the back of his knees hitting the chair, making him struggle for balance.

“What did you do?!” she yelped, clutching her chest with both her hands.

“Keeping my promise,” Bill said curtly.

Mabel clearly struggled between yelling at him again or picking a more physical approach. Instead she huffed and with a hand pressed against her front she stormed off.

Dipper immediately ran after her. But not before Bill had thrown him a meaningful look.  
Don’t forget our deal, it said.

 

***

Dipper’s fingertips ran over the rough edges where the pages had been ripped from the journal. He had wanted to keep Mabel from overreacting in a fit of rage but even though she hadn’t been in a mood to talk, she seemed awfully calm. When she came out of the bathroom she was dressed in long pants and a fuzzy, light blue sweater that reminded Dipper of their first summer at the Shack. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and although a large yellow fish winked at him from the front of her pullover, her crossed arms and stern face prevented him from commenting on it.

“Found anything in there?” she asked and Dipper quickly closed the book.

“About what?” he asked and shoved it back under his bed.

Mabel rolled her eyes.  
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe preventing a second apocalypse.”

Dipper had the feeling she didn’t really want an answer to that. She turned and stomped down the stairs.  
Dipper zipped up his hoodie. His hands were shaking.

 

***

 

Their footsteps echoed unusually loud on the concrete as they made their way down the road. There was no signs telling him the time of day. He knew they had left the Shack in the morning but even through the thick layer of clouds he suspected the sun had not changed position. Everything was covered in irregular shadows. Or no shadows at all because the sparse light that reached the ground did not allow for them.  
Dipper thought he had walked past the same tree fifty times already even though they had been walking for only a few minutes. Although it felt longer. Something was off but he couldn’t tell what. Time and distances seemed meaningless.  
When Dipper tried to focus his eyes or his thoughts onto something, it seemed to slip even further from his grasp. Which made it very difficult at times to follow Bill’s explanations.  
He had talked since the moment they had left. Whereas Mabel had been uncommonly quiet. Perhaps she was struggling with his words too.

Bill suspected the center of their problem right above Gravity Falls. On the exact same spot he had ripped open the dimensional wall years ago. It had become weak and unstable and it had only been a matter of time until something had burst through. Of course there were smaller gaps all across the town and woods but closing the largest one would shift the flow of energy enough to stop any more nightmares from slipping through.  
How he planned on doing that, Dipper had no idea.

As they walked towards the town Bill handed each of them one of the sheets of paper he had so meticulously decorated with black lines, keeping one for himself. They all look different but had one thing in common: a small triangle a little off center. Mabel had given Dipper a strange look then. He felt he should know what all that meant but the connection still evaded him.

When they reached the main road, they slowed, watching for movement or any signs of the sleepwalkers. The car that had crashed into the shop window was still there. Leaves and dust had gathered on the trunk but otherwise it looked completely untouched. The whole town seemed as empty as the last time they had been here. Dipper knew it was treacherous but for now there was no sign of life and they could still make a run for it should that change.  
He relaxed a little until Bill pointed to a nearby branch overhanging the street. A small gray and yellow bird was sitting there, its beady, black eyes following them.

“They know we’re here,” Mabel said flatly.

“Then we better make this quick,” Bill added. “Before they figure out what we’re about to do.”

The twins took a few more steps along the main street when they noticed Bill was not going to follow them.  
“I think this is far enough,” he said.

Dipper looked up at the gray sky as if he could actually spot the gap. A thick layer of hazy clouds was all he saw.

“Now what?” Mabel asked sharply. She held up the paper with two fingers as if she expected it to burst into flames.

“Here,” Bill said and held out his fist. Reluctantly Mabel offered her palm and something small glinted briefly as it landed on it. It took Mabel two tries before she could hold it up against the light. It was a tack. Probably taken from Grunkle Stan’s office.

“I thought we were over this,” she hissed.

Bill barely held her gaze. “One last time. I promise.”

After another long second and a hateful glare Mabel moved to push her finger against the pointed tip of the tack.

“Not now,” Bill interrupted before Dipper could do it. “I already said…” He tried sound patient. “We have to push the nightmares back first before I can reverse the direction of the rift. Otherwise they would just be trapped here.”

Mabel swallowed. “And the… nightmare realm?”

“As soon as the nightmares have retreated I’ll extend the gap and close its connection to this dimension. This,” he pointed to the sheet of paper. “Will create a seal large enough to use the energy of the sleepwalkers. But you have to activate it at the right time, understood?”

Dipper felt the floor shift underneath his feet. As if someone had pulled the carpet away from where he was standing.  
“We’re making a seal around the whole town?” He wanted to yell but his voice remained quiet. “You’re going to leave her here?”

Bill suddenly found the ground exceptionally interesting.

“It’s okay, bro,” Mabel interjected.

Dipper turned, not believing his ears.  
“Are you serious?! I don’t want you alone surrounded by sleepwalkers!”

Mabel stretched out her arms gesturing towards the empty roads and deserted houses.  
“I don’t see any.”

“Mabel!”

“Bill said to hurry, didn’t he?” she brushed him off.

Dipper stared in confusion, questioning his sanity and wondering if something had snuck up on them and taken over his sister’s mind. She was all too eager to help Bill with his plans.

“Don’t worry about the sleepwalkers,” Bill said. “Worry about the nightmares.”  
He dropped his voice.  
“No matter what you see or hear or feel, remember that it’s not real! They will try to take over over your mind so don’t let them!”

Mabel shot Dipper a look that asked if Bill was talking to them or trying to remind himself to not let that happen.  
“So when do I do this?” Mabel asked, holding up the tack. “How will we know when the nightmares are gone? Are you going to give us a signal anything?”

Bill tilted his head.  
“No need for that,” he said. “You’ll notice.”

Mabel looked skeptical but did not comment on it any further. Dipper knew something was up but he couldn’t place his finger on it. That was until Mabel pulled him into a hug.  
“Take care of yourself,” she whispered, slipping an arm around his neck. With her free hand she tucked at the front pocket of his hoodie and Dipper felt a small weight drop into it.  
“We will notice,” she repeated Bill's words and tightly held onto her brother’s arms so he wouldn’t instinctively reach for what she had just slipped him. Her gaze was both a warning and reassurance. Dipper wished he understood what she was trying to tell him.  
“I’ll be all right,” she said as she let go but couldn’t hide the slight tremble of the paper in her hands.

“Come on,” Bill urged and almost had to drag Dipper away and back into the forest.

“Is she going to be okay?” he asked when his sister had vanished from their view.

“If she does as told there’ll be no problem. Don’t worry.”

Dipper scoffed. “Easy for you to say.”

The ground began to slope slightly upwards as they ascended the hill at the edge of the town. They walked a moment in silence, the forest becoming denser and darker around them. Or so it seemed, Dipper thought, taking a deep breath to calm down. The presence of nightmares was undeniable.

“The seal I made carries a protection,” Bill said after a while. “It helps to ward off the nightmares. If anything goes wrong keep the page with you. It should give you and Shooting Star some time to get away.”

“What does ‘wrong’ mean exactly?” Dipper interjected but Bill ignored him.

“Just make a run for it. But don’t go back to the Shack. I don’t know if the seal there is strong enough. But Ford’s equation probably is so get away from Gravity Falls als fast as possible and never come back.”

Dipper had stopped walking and when he realized it, quickly caught up to Bill again.  
“We can’t just leave,” he protested. “What about the sleepwalkers... the townspeople I mean. What about Wendy’s family?”

“I’m sure you great uncles can think about something,” Bill answered coldly.

“What about you?”

This time Bill shot him a look.  
“I’m just a cluster of energy,” he said. “If my power isn't strong enough to open a portal and close it again afterward I’ll just cease to exist and that’s that.”  
His brief smile was bitter.  
“At least I don’t have to stay in this filthy body any longer. And when there’s an open gap to the nightmare realm you have more important things to worry about, kid.”

The last word put some distance between them which Dipper knew was intentional.  
He had suspected that the events in the near future were crucial for their fight against the nightmares but he hadn’t known how much was at stake for Bill. But it was too late now to think of another plan

The rest of the way was spent quietly. Soon the forest cleared and they approached the top of the hill which had an almost cliff-like edge that overlooked the town. If the weather and their situation had not been so bad they could have had a really nice view.  
But now everything was tinted gray, the forest a dark, threatening mass, the lake a lifeless puddle. This was not how Dipper wanted to remember it.

“Here’s your spot,” Bill said and his voice sounded hollow in the quietness around them.

He held out his hand and the expected tack dropped into Dipper’s palm. He waited for further instructions but nothing came. For a long moment they just looked at each other. In the vast cloud of thoughts that had accumulated inside Dipper’s head during the last few days one was particularly persistent and tore with sharp claws at his insides.  
If everything went according to plan and Bill managed to banish nightmares he would always open portal to the Mindscape and finally go back to his dimension. If he ran out of energy before that, he would disappear as well.  
Either way, Dipper wasn’t going to see him again.  
A strange thought considering how desperately had wanted to get rid of him at first.

Bill winced when Dipper raised his arms. He tensed even more when they closed around him. For an excruciatingly long second Dipper wonder if that was the most stupid thing he had done all week and if it was too late to pretend it hadn’t happened.  
Then Bill carefully hugged him back and the knot forming in his throat stopped his breath. It spread in his chest and forced his eyes closed.

Only the night before had he believed they would both make it out of this. He pulled Bill in more tightly, wishing things had turned out a little differently.  
Just a few more days together. Another couple hours. One more minute.

Bill nudged him gently and Dipper let go. His whole body felt cold and numb even though Bill had been so warm. There was a mark in the palm of his hand where he had clutched the tack to firmly. He was still looking for the right words when Bill turned to leave.  
His eyes had been as gray as the trees behind him.

Dipper watched him walk back into the forest and he was soon swallowed by shadows, his footfalls fading into complete silence. Then he turned back around to look over the town below.  
As he waited for the signal it began to snow.


	46. XLVI

It was a lighter.  
Red and small it lay in Dipper’s palm. The liquid inside moved slightly because of his trembling hand.  
Bill had been gone for a while now. How long exactly Dipper couldn’t tell. He guessed somewhere between ten minutes and an hour. Time was too difficult to comprehend. His memories of what had happened minutes ago were a blur.There was an ache in his chest he couldn’t explain.  
But there was no doubt about what Mabel wanted him to do with the tiny thing in his hand.

Wait for the signal. You’ll see. Don’t interfere!

The voices in his head were indistinguishable. What was he waiting for anyway? His attention shifted and he found himself staring at the sky. Holding out his hand, he wondered why the snowflakes didn’t reach him.

“Can we go home?”  
Slowly Dipper turned towards the woods. The trees were bare. The ground was covered in a thick layer of snow.  
“I’m cold.”

Mabel’s voice echoed from the emptiness around him. Before Dipper was even aware of what he was doing, he had reached the edge of the forest, his footsteps made no sound. The trunk of the tree felt like ice on this hand. He walked around it and saw Mabel staring at him.

“Something‘s gone wrong,” she said. “We have to go.”

Dipper moved to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. He touched blood and it left streaks on her cheek. More poured from ear, her hair, the side of her head. Dipper felt like someone was drowning him in cold water.  
He wanted to withdraw his hand, now coated in sticky liquid, but Mabel had grabbed it.

“Why didn’t you wait for the signal?” she asked, her voice not her own.  
“The sleepwalkers know we’re here.”

Dipper ripped his hand free. Mabel’s fingernails left long scratches. Like the claws of a crow. The falling snow turned into black feathers.  
“You want to end up like the bird?”

Dipper shuddered. He had done something wrong. He had done something terribly wrong and it had hurt his sister. It was his fault.  
Mabel’s shirt was drenched and there was a pool of red in the snow under her feet.

A red glow illuminated her face and the trees around her like fire. The sky over the town was no longer gray but a sickly orange with wavering splotches of yellow and black. Two huge intersecting rifts had sliced it open, growing larger and larger the longer Dipper looked at them. Black smoke streamed from its center and mingled with the white snow that was still falling gently, unaware of the catastrophe.

Dipper was numb, not a single thoughts or emotion crossing his mind. He refused to believe what was happening right before his eyes. The sheet of paper Bill had given him lay on the snow-covered ground. Its color had changed. It was smeared with blood.  
Dipper held up his hand. His skin was torn open from the tack in his other hand. He almost didn’t feel the pain. But he couldn’t remember when he had done that.

“Thanks, Pine Tree.”

The words were like a hot iron on his back.  
Bill was staring at him from across the clearing. A single bright yellow eye with a slit instead of a pupil. He should have known, Dipper thought bitterly. He shouldn’t have trusted him.  
The entire forest had burst into flames and snow had turned to ash. Dipper’s body was shaking with the horror of what he had done.  
He forced his eyes closed but his vision remained. He couldn’t look away.

“You did this,” Mabel said and now she sounded so much like herself.  
“You hate him the most.”

Dipper felt like his heart was going to burst through his chest. He didn’t hate Bill. He hated himself for feeling quite the opposite. And for endangering everyone because of it. For endangering his family, his sister. 

He had begun to realize that he had been caught by a nightmare but the crushing guilt he felt couldn’t be more real.

“It’s your fault,” Mabel said again and she sounded just like him.

“I know,” Dipper replied, even though he knew it wasn’t really his sister he was talking to.  
“I should have told you,” he added. “But I didn’t know how.”

Mabel began to cry and Dipper was forced to watch. He took a few steps backwards, hoping to calm the trembling of his whole body. Wherever he looked mabel’s face followed him.  
Face your fears, his inner voice reminded him but it was difficult enough with these kind of thoughts and emotions while awake so confronting them during a dream, where no distraction or repression was possible, was almost unbearable.

He took a deep breath, even though his lungs weren’t moving and looked directly at Mabel. Her face was impossible to focus on. He couldn’t see the color of her eyes. Blood was still gushing from the side of her neck.

“I’m sorry,” he said. There was nothing else he could do. He had given up the fight against his own guilt. Had stopped looking for excuses or a way to turn everything around. He had to accept that there was no way of fixing his mistakes and he had to live with the consequences.

Suddenly Mabel’s demeanor changed to pure rage and before he could react she had leapt forward, snarling, and dug her fingernails into his throat. Dipper screamed, trying to push her off. He heard his name. Hot blood splattered on his face.

Mable was holding onto his shoulders.

“Wake up!”  
He was lying on the ground, gasping for air.  
Mabel was beaming at him. “Dipper, we did it!”

He looked around in confusion. The snow was still there, cold and wet when he sat up, but Mabel’s hair and skin were spotless. No sign of a wound.

“You did it! You defeated the nightmare,” she continued, grinning from ear to ear.

Relief flooded Dipper’s chest.  
“Really?” he asked.

Mabel smiled and held up the charred remains of Bill’s paper. A small piece, not much bigger than the palm of his hand, the single triangle missing a corner.  
The lighter dropped from Dipper’s hand. There was no blood nor wounds on his body but the regret that came crashing down on him was worse.

The sky had resumed its deathly pale color and the burning clouds had disappeared.  
What had happened to Bill?  
Dipper had promised not to mess with his plans so he had to be furious.

Mabel helped him to his feet, babbling about finally going home when a weird feeling stopped Dipper in his tracks.  
He turned and saw Bill standing at the edge of the cliff. Prepared to fight Dipper positioned himself protectively in front of Mabel.  
But Bill didn’t attack.  
He seemed a little beside himself. Tired, shoulders slumped, betrayed.  
Dipper took a tentative step forward, then slowly walked towards Bill when he failed to show any signs of aggression.

“I’m sorry,” Dipper said, knowing it didn’t mean anything. His actions were not going to be forgiven so easily.

Bill’s eyes narrowed dangerously. They were red rimmed, like he had been crying. Dipper’s guts twisted into a tight, painful knot. He reached out, his fingers leaving black marks on the other’s skin. Dipper winced, wiping his soot covered hands on his shirt. He couldn’t get them clean.  
Bill had recoiled as if burned by his touch.

“I can’t stay,” he said and Dipper felt his stomach drop. He hadn’t even asked yet.

“Why not?” he heard himself say.  
For some reason he had been convinced Bill was going to be mad at him. He hadn’t thought leaving him was and even more terrible punishment.  
But that was what he deserved for going behind his back.

Bill lifted his hand from where Dipper had touched his arm and a good portion of his skin came away with it.  
Dipper’s eyes went wide but Bill’s face barely changed. If anything he looked disappointed or as if he had expected this. The tendons and muscles beneath glistened with blood and constricted when he lifted his arm to inspect the damage.

“I just wanted to go home.”

Dipper’s chest was too tight to breathe. If he tried to talk now he was sure to burst into tears. Bill peeled another strip of skin from his wrist, tearing a few muscles in the process. Two of his fingers lost their tone and hung limply on his hand. Dipper wished he would stop. He couldn’t bear to watch Bill hurting himself like this. Destroying the same hands he had bandaged so carefully that one time. He would have to fix them all over again.

Bill pulled out a nerve or a vessel and Dipper was another step closer to throwing up. There was surprisingly little blood. Maybe his body was going into shock.

“Please stop.” His voice was trembling.

Bill gave him a look. Then dug his nails into his forearm and ripped off most of the flesh. Dipper put a hand over his mouth to stop screaming. He saw bone protruding from the wound and he tried to close his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at the shredded limb. Or Bill’s expressionless face.  
It didn’t work so he moved in and grabbed Bill’s other shoulder. He was glared at viciously but didn’t care. He desperately wanted to yell at him or hug him or both. But mostly he wanted him to come back to the Shack with him.  
Dipper lifted his hands to his cheek. He was very gentle but the skin there gave away too easily. His fingers left black soot in his hair. He wanted to pull back but Bill held him in place, nuzzling his palm almost lovingly. Had it not been for the strips of flesh dangling from his elbow and his cheek disintegrating beneath Dipper’s palm.  
Bill’s skin was turning cold. It was so terrifying that Dipper felt a strange sense of detachment from his body.

“I’m so sorry,” he said again. Tears were running down his face. He could feel teeth and the bone of his skull underneath his fingertips.  
Bill hated being human. And now he was going to die like one. The beautiful dark gold of his eyes had already turned into a dull brown.  
Mabel pushed the memory gun into his hand. He held it up against the side of Bill’s head. He could end this. The longer he waited the more Bill was going to suffer. Because of him.

“You can’t save us both,” Mabel said coldly.

“Don’t run,” Bill said. There was a crow sitting on his shoulder. It’s claws tore into his flesh. 

Dipper turned the gun around and pointed it at his own temple.  
“We made a deal,” he said and pulled the trigger.

 

***

He was alone.  
His hands were empty.  
Dipper blinked, realizing he was standing far too close to the edge of the cliff and quickly stepped back. His legs were stiff. Cold sweat stood on his forehead. He leaned forward, supporting himself on his knees, fighting the gut-wrenching nausea.  
Mabel’s blood and Bill’s dying body were still clear before his inner eye and he hoped they would soon become a distant memory.

Bill had warned them about the nightmares but nothing could have prepared him for this.  
They really did target your deepest fears, he thought. He had known Mabel safety was his top priority but he hadn’t realized how much he cared about Bill as well.  
He didn’t know how much time had passed. Had he missed the signal?

He picked up the paper from the ground. It was unharmed.  
The tack and the lighter where still in his pockets. He could hear them move against each other as he walked in circles around the clearing, trying to shake off the terrible images in his head.

Something large snuck up behind him and breathed down his neck. When he turned there was only the dark forest.  
Teeth sunk into Dipper’s leg and he screamed. The pain vanished when he looked down. The grass around his feet was charred.

Nightmares were trying to take over his mind again. How much longer would he have to fight them? How much more would he have to bear?

The edge of the hill where he had stood only seconds before began to crumble, eating away at the clearing, coming closer quickly.  
Dipper jumped back. He took a deep breath and found he couldn’t. Heavy liquid clogged his airways. His stomach cramped and blood streamed from his mouth and nose. Thick drops stained the ground around him. He coughed and a few teeth came loose.  
Forcing down the rising panic, Dipper stared at the paper in his trembling hands. 

He traced the carefully painted black lines, the small triangle.  
It was too late. There would be no signal.  
Bill was not going to make it. They had run out of time.

Meticulously slowly Dipper folded the sheet in half and tucked it into his front pocket. His fingers brushed the two other things in there. He wouldn’t have to decide between the tack and the lighter after all, he thought and felt immensely relieved.  
From the back pocket of his pants he pulled a page from the journal. He had seen it many times flipping through the book in search of answers but he hadn’t known it had held the solution for their problems all along.  
There was no hidden message, no secret code. It had been there in plain view all along.  
That’s why Bill had brought back the journals from the woods that night. He had wanted Dipper to find it himself. Bill would never have asked and it wouldn’t work if he forced him. It was something that had to be done willingly.

Dipper’s smoothed out the paper. Parts of it were burned, had yellowed with age and were missing bits where he had secretly ripped it from the book.

‘Do not summon at all costs.’

Dipper couldn’t help but smile at the phrase.  
At first they had scared him.  
‘At all costs’, it said. He looked over the town below. They had nothing to lose, he thought and cleared his throat. 

he first words came clumsily and without the correct pronunciation.  
A sharp noise behind him almost broke his concentration but he kept his eyes on the page, the tip of his finger guiding him along senseless words and tongue twisting syllables. Some expressions he had to start over and a few letters he missed altogether but after a while they rolled off his tongue more easily. He didn’t know what they meant but it didn’t matter. Bill was not strong enough to open the portal on his own so Dipper was doing the only thing that could possibly help him. He just hoped he had made the right decision.  
Claws dug in his back but he kept reading.  
He took a deep breath.

His fingers reached the very last sentence and as soon as it had left his mouth, heavy silence engulfed everything.  
As if time had come to a complete halt. Between one heartbeat and the next there seemed to be endless nothingness.

Then without warning, like an avalanche that came crashing down on him, Dipper felt a huge wave of energy hit him.  
He had experienced it before but never this intense. What had seemed like drowning in warm water before, now felt like being cooked alive. There was no heat or pain or even real discomfort but the senses of his mortal body weren’t able to communicate the sensation any better. 

The force of the impact threw him to his knees, sucked the air from his lungs and completely overloaded his nervous system, the rush of sensations too much to handle all at once.  
He shut his eyes and covered his ears. Noise and light and heat were everywhere and Dipper wondered if all this was going to be the last he would ever feel.  
There was no escape from it. He couldn’t  
tell if it really was Bill’s power or yet another nightmare.

Just when he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, the feeling of having his limbs slowly torn from his torso eventually subsided and the constriction around his ribs lifted enough to let him breathe.  
At first there was only blinding light and it took him a second to realize that just like the warmth still on his back, it was not the product of a burning town but a beautiful summer day.  
The sky was a brilliant blue, the scenery around him bursting with nature and colors. Very carefully the silence was broken by the song of a brave bird. Soon others joined it and when a gentle gust of wind rustled the leaves of the forest, Dipper knew the world had returned to its usual self.  
Seeing it again was like waking up from a long sleep. His mind had shed its sluggishness and his thoughts and movements were as quick and clear as usual. The forest was no longer an inescapable, monster infested maze but provided cool shade.

Dipper’s legs carried him effortlessly along rows off flourishing greenery and thick grass speckled with sunlight. This was the Gravity Falls he remembered and he couldn’t explain how he had ever forgotten it.

He ran into Mabel at the edge of the town. She stared at the houses and the sky as if she couldn’t believe her eyes and Dipper knew exactly how she felt. When she saw him she looked down at the sheet of paper in her hand.

“I didn’t do anything,” she said, looking confused.

Dipper shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s over.”  
He could see the guilt in her eyes.

At the end of the road a group of people had appeared. They were talking frantically among themselves but they were too far away to be heard clearly.

“I think the sleepwalkers have woken up,” Mabel said and for a moment the twins just watched the townspeople slowly shaking of their confusion and returning to their normal life. If they were lucky they would never have to find out what had happened to them.

“Let’s go home,” Mabel said gently, carefully leading Dipper away from where he had been staring at the forest.

They passed two police officers who were arguing about who had crashed their car and a shop owner who was sweeping glass from the pavement.  
Black clouds had appeared in the distance. The hot weather apparently didn’t mix well with the cold air from before, Dipper thought and at the same time wondered how much of it had actually been real. His mind had already started to mix up memories, events fading into one another, emotions disconnecting from their cause.  
Maybe soon he would forget the last week had even happened.  
Perhaps he would forget about Bill as well.  
He didn’t want to think about it now. It was a nice sunny day, despite the approaching thunderstorm. When Mabel smiled at him it was easy to smile back.

They didn’t talk much on their way back, they were too busy looking at their surroundings. It already began to feel like nothing had ever changed. Like it had always been this way. Traces would remain of course but the impact of it all would soon become too difficult to understand. Dipper was glad for that. He was tired and hungry and felt like his head was too exhausted to think. Wendy’s father crossed their way and raised his hand in greeting. The twins waved back and had almost forgotten why they were feeling such huge relief at the sight of him.  
The rest of the search party had probably already made it back into town, wondering along with the other townspeople what the hell had happened. But they would very soon accept the strangeness and move on with their lives.  
It was Gravity Falls after all and these things just happened.  
Thunder rolled in the distance and the twins increased their pace.

When they reached the fork in the road that lead to the Mystery Shack, framed by a lush forest, it was like finally coming home. The chipped paint and crooked roof were as familiar as the smell of the air before a heavy rain. Dipper already saw himself with a hot tea and a good book, listening to the rain and finally getting the rest he deserved when Mabel stopped. She looked into the direction they had just come.  
Dipper turned and followed her gaze.

At first it seemed like another cruel nightmare but this time he was certain that what he saw, was real.  
There was no mistaking the light hair, darkened a little by the heavy rain drops that had started to fall around them.  
His second thought was that something had gone wrong. Hadn’t Bill said he would leave when everything was over? He couldn’t feel the presence of nightmares anymore so why was he still here? And why was he looking so angry?

Bill came stomping towards him. “What did you do?!”

Dipper glanced behind him to calculate the distance to the safety of the Shack but Bill was faster and in front of him only seconds later. He grabbed the front of his hoodie.

“Why are you still here?” Dipper asked, trying to get some distance between them. Clawing at Bill’s hands he tried to loosen his grip but his skin was slippery from the rain. He felt Mabel’s hand on his chest as she unsuccessfully tried to separate them.

“So I could personally punch you in the face for doing something so utterly ludicrous,” Bill snapped.

His mind didn’t seem to work right after all, Dipper thought as he failed to convince himself that Bill threatening and yelling at him should not make him feel so happy. Had he always been this masochistic?

Luckily Bill didn’t show any inclination to actually go through with his threats. His hold on Dipper even slackened a little. Mabel relaxed but kept a close eye on them in case she needed to intervene again.  
“What’s going on?” she asked, looking between the two of them.

“I just thought you could use some help,” Dipper said, barely hiding a grin.

Bill didn’t like it. He yanked at his collar.  
“I told you not to intervene,” he hissed.

Next to him Dipper felt Mabel wince but he was too distracted by the proximity of Bill’s face to console her.  
Small droplets had caught in his long lashes. He tried to keep up his glare but his frown softened and was replaced by an unasked question.  
“We had a deal,” he said but he didn’t sound angry. Rather confused and worried. It made Dipper smile.

“Sorry,” he said and pulled Bill in.

He hadn’t meant to blatantly hug him in front of Mabel who, he could feel, was staring at them. But he couldn’t help it. He was overwhelmed by the fact that Bill had not left him without a goodbye that a whole bunch of suppressed emotions came bubbling to the surface all at once. He almost wasn’t aware of the rain that was now pouring down on them but could feel it on Bill’’s skin when he tightened his hold on him. He hadn’t thought he would ever be able to do this again.

“Uhm…,” Mabel started, hesitantly asking for attention.

Dipper didn’t resist when Bill pried him off. He was grateful for the cool rain on his face.

“I’ll go on inside, okay?” Mabel said but didn’t move. She looked like she wanted to say something else but was either lost for words or couldn’t decide what question to begin with. In the end she tore her eyes away and hurried towards the Shack, not without glancing back at them one last time before heading inside.  
Dipper let out a breath. There was a lot he would have to explain to her later. He looked at Bill, who avoided his eyes and seemed just as uncomfortable. There was nothing left of his initial rage. If it had even been there in the first place, Dipper wondered. 

He had not time to apologize again. Only seconds after the door had closed behind Mabel, the storm came crashing down on them.  
A deafening roar surrounded them as huge raindrops began pouring down, restricting their vision to only a few feet. The pressure of the water was almost painful.

Dipper threw up his arms, shielding his eyes and automatically took a step towards the house when Bill’s hand on his shoulder made him stop. A strong grip pulled him in the opposite direction towards the forest. He hesitated for a second but then followed the other’s lead.

Beneath the dense canopy he could breathe freely again without running the risk of inhaling more water. It was still dripping down on them but it was bearable compared to the thick wall of rain that had completely enclosed the world beyond.

“How can you be so altruistic?” Bill asked. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of the storm but sounded nowhere near as irate as before.  
Dipper shook the water from his hair. He had no idea what the other was talking about.

“I took the seal from you so you wouldn’t do anything stupid… And then you do this?!” Bill continued and it slowly dawned on Dipper what he was trying to say.  
“I told you not to interfere, Pine Tree! But you risked your life, and the life of your sister... just to save this stupid old town?”

Dipper dropped his gaze. He knew Bill had made the deal to protect him. And he had broken it to protect Bill. He couldn’t understand why the other didn’t see it that way. Or perhaps he did. Why else would he have come back to scold him personally? Bill could have been back in his dimension for quite a while now but instead stood in front of him, asking for an explanation his short time as a human hadn’t been able to give him.

“Altruistic, huh?” Dipper repeated Bill’s words. He looked up, feeling the weight of his drenched clothes. He took a step forward. Bill didn’t move.  
“I think you could have snuffed out the entire universe as soon as your powers were back so actually…,”  
He brushed wet strands of out of Bill’s face.  
“I risked the safety of the entire dimension just so I wouldn’t lose you. Doesn’t get any more selfish than that if you ask me.”

He smiled, only a little embarrassed about what he had just said. Mabel would drill him with questions later anyway so there was no sense in denying.  
Also he took great satisfaction in having rendered Bill speechless for a second.

“Want to head inside?” he asked.  
The other’s dazed silence was almost as uncomfortable as the water sloshing around in his shoes. He didn’t know why the simple question made him so anxious.

Bill briefly looked in the direction of the Shack then back at him.  
A hint of a smile had appeared around his lips.  
“Sure.”

Dipper took his hand and they ran.

The rain had eased a little but was still a steady downpour. It cleaned the air and washed away dust and ash, watering the earth so new trees would soon grow where others had fallen. As soon as it was over a beautiful summer day would return, leaving no remnants of the nightmares.


	47. XLVII

As much as the last week had been a nightmare, the afternoon that followed began to feel like a dream.  
Mabel had put a line up in the bathroom to hang her wet clothes and left some space for Dipper’s and Bill’s. They had followed her into the warm, dry shack only a couple minutes later but it had been long enough for Mabel to smirk at them knowingly when they tried to sneak past the kitchen.  
If Mabel hadn’t suspected anything before she sure did now.

When they had finally made it to the bathroom upstairs Dipper pulled his drenched shirt over his head deliberately slowly to cool his burning face. It didn’t help either that Bill was undressing in front of him.  
He draped his sweater over the line skillfully and Dipper was reminded of the time he had forced him to hang their laundry behind the house. He had to bite back a comment on how much his skills had improved since then. But he received a glance topped with a grin and and realized he had been staring.  
Quickly he turned back to the cold lump of fabric clinging to his arms. Before he could toss it onto the floor, however, Bill grabbed it from his hands, gave it a thorough shake and put it up for him.

Dipper laughed. He wondered if he would ever get used to Bill trying to behave like a decent human being. He immediately stopped when a pair of hands snuck around his waist and began to fiddle with the front of his pants.  
“Hey!”

“What? You gonna keep them on?”

Bill managed to undo the button of his jeans even though Dipper was doing his best to squirm his way out of this more or less uncomfortable situation. Bill’s hands were not only cold but also way to intrusive.  
His arms and chest were warm though and Dipper found himself leaning back deliberately. But at the same time he was trying to pry the cheeky fingers off which were eager to pull down his waistband. It was futile and eventually it ended in him resigning and just letting Bill have his way.  
He couldn’t help laughing again when the wet fabric got stuck on hips. Bill growled, whether in annoyance about the pants or his reaction, Dipper didn’t know. But the sudden push against his shoulders shut him up. He caught himself at the edge of the bathtub and yelped when Bill yanked at his pants, almost pulling his legs out from under him.

“Are you stealing my pants again?” Dipper asked, turning around and aiming a playful kick at the other’s stomach. Bill evaded it easily and grabbed for him again with both hands.

“No,” he said, looking over Dipper. “Just trying to get them off.”

The predatory grin on his face sent a jolt down Dipper’s back that made him feel cold and hot at the same time.  
“Should have said so,” he replied cooly, hooking his thumb into his waistband and shoving it down. It caught on his skin again and only very slowly slid down his thighs.

This time it was Bill who chuckled.  
“This impatient?” He grinned.

“Says you.” Dipper shot back, trying not to dwell on the fact that Bill had already shed all of his clothes.  
No exception.  
It was as difficult to ignore as the slow pull of his hands that had returned to his pants and Bill kneeling before him as he sat at the edge of the bathtub. It evoked a series of not unpleasant memories. Dipper forcefully directed his gaze somewhere else.

Bill was more patient now and his pants came off more easily once they were past his knees. He had barely touched skin but the close attention was enough to make Dipper’s skin crawl. As soon as Bill had gotten up and turned away he quickly took a few deep breaths. He wondered if Bill was going to do the same to his underwear.  
Holding his breath again, he thought, would definitely not work then.

His eyes returned to Bill’s back unintentionally and he pushed himself up.  
“You can go first if you want,” he said. “I’ll get us some dry clothes.”

Bill’s head whipped around, a theatrically shocked expression on his face.  
“We’re not showering together?”

Dipper stopped. It was an intriguing invitation. He felt heat rise from his neck. And at the same time his inner organs seemed to melt into a puddle.  
But what if Mabel decided to check on them? Was there even enough space? How soon were they going to run out of hot water?

Bill stepped closer when he hesitated. “I just thought…we could get dirty before we get clean.”

Dipper snorted. “Oh my God!”

“Don’t use that name just yet.”  
Bill grinned confidently but a slight blush dusted his cheeks.

Dipper rolled his eyes. He was lost for words so he took a step forward and pulled Bill into a hug.  
Physical contact was still something that threw him off and he could feel him tense at first. Dipper countered it by wrapping his arms around him more tightly.  
He would have to do this more often, he decided, so Bill would learn. The thought made him smile. He closed his eyes and enjoyed his skin slowly warming against the other’s body.

After a much too short moment Dipper relaxed his hold on him and drew back a little. His hand slipped from Bill’s back to his shoulders and then to his neck. When his palms slid up to his jaw he could feel a slight trace of stubbles on his cheeks.  
He should have known, he would think later. But right then it had been so nice, so perfect.

Maybe Bill had seen it in his eyes or in the way the lines of his face changed. So he leaned forward and kissed Dipper, drowning everything in warmth and comfort and gentle touches of his hands.  
Dipper responded instantly, pushing closer and letting his hands move over the other’s chest. He opened his mouth and their kiss deepened.  
He could feel the trail of goosebumps his cold fingers left on Bill’s skin. And the soft gasp against his mouth when his thumb brushed over a nipple. Bill moved more carefully, lightly caressing Dipper’s back, concentrating on following the movement of his lips.

Dipper smiled.  
“Relax,” he breathed against the other’s mouth.

Bill paused briefly. Then scoffed and shoved his hands down the back of Dipper’s boxers, making him jump. His hands were pleasantly warm in contrast to the wet fabric.  
Dipper took a breath to comment on the boldness but it choked in his throat when Bill caught his mouth again. The tip of his tongue brushed his teeth while his fingers moved lower and began to push down his underwear.  
Dipper, not wanting to be outdone gave Bill a few gentle nudges until his back was pressed against the wall.

Bill only snickered at the rough treatment before moving in for another kiss. One of his hands immediately returned to Dipper’s waist, the other snuck between them, his thumb teasing him through the fabric. Dipper breathed into his mouth, moving against his fingers. At this rate the shower would have to wait a bit, he thought, but felt no regret.  
He slung an arm around Bill’s shoulders for support as he leaned forward to push his boxes down his knees

“You can hang it up later,” he murmured against Bill’s cheek as the garment dropped to his ankles.

Bill chuckled. “So generous.”

He pulled Dipper close again and now there were no wet clothes between them anymore. Both gasped at the contact of hot skin. Bill closed one hand around both their lengths, stroking gently, while the other remained on the small of Dipper’s back, holding him in place.   
Dipper’s hips bucked almost unintentionally and his arms tightened around Bill as he planted open-mouthed kisses on his throat and collarbone. He could feel the quick pulse as he traced the side of his neck and the short flinch when he nipped the shell of his ear.  
With a breathy laugh Bill let his palm slide a little lower and playfully squeezed his butt. Dipper groaned and pushed back against the touch eagerly then ground forward against Bill before he could stop himself.  
They both froze and looked at each other, slightly surprised at where things were going so quickly.

Dipper wasn’t used to being so bold, so demanding, and felt some of his blood return to heat up his face. Bill’s cheeky grin wasn’t making it any better. He waited for a humiliating remark or snarky comment and was rummaging for a potential comeback.  
But Bill just smiled at him.  
It showed amusement, of course, but at the same time it was so very gentle and warm that all his worries and doubts shattered into pieces.

“Please stop thinking,” Bill said, returning to his usual grin. It disappeared when he wrapped both his arms around his neck. Dipper immediately began to miss the attention further down but his tense shoulders finally relaxed. He closed his eyes and could feel the other’s heartbeat against his chest.  
“Pine Tree.”

The nickname was barely a breath against his ear.  
Before he had time to fully register it, Bill tightened his hold around his shoulders and without warning pulled him to the floor with him.  
All air left his lungs. Dipper began to protest as his knees hit the thin carpet but he was instantly silenced by a hot mouth. And a pair of legs that had snuck around his waist and were now pulling him in mercilessly.  
Warm hands held onto his face and his mouth opened to the other’s coaxing tongue. Dipper couldn’t help the thrill that passed through him for having him beneath him like this. He could feel Bill’s pulse under his fingertips as they slid along warm skin. It was fast but steady, almost calm compared to the nervous flutter inside Dipper’s chest. Which only increased when Bill flexed his knees, pulling him in.

Dipper shifted his weight for better access and reached down between them to continue what they had started earlier but Bill grabbed his wrist. Without breaking the kiss he guided his hand along his side and placed it firmly on his own hip. He held it there for a second to make sure it wouldn’t move, then took the other. Dipper obliged readily, far too distracted by the wordless commands and the other’s lips. As soon as Bill had placed both his hands on his waist, he pulled in his legs again, his ankles pushing into Dipper’s back, their hips grinding together. Dipper’s eyes flew open.  
There was absolutely no mistaking what he wanted him to do and Dipper began to feel hot all over.   
He looked at the other.

Bill licked his lips.  
“Too fast?” he asked, his voice raw.

Dipper swallowed audibly. He wondered if there was a way to check if he was dreaming again. It was not like he didn’t want what Bill was so blatantly offering. But subconsciously he had expected it to be the other way round. At least then he wouldn’t be panicking right now.

Bill sighed and playfully pulled on the hair on the nape of Dipper’s neck.  
“What’s going on in your head this time?” he asked, but not at all impatiently. “Isn’t this sort of thing hardwired into your brain? Can’t you just… act on your instinct or something?”

Dipper pulled a face. “What. That’s… I can’t just stick it in,” he said, a little embarrassed. Somehow the lack of experience on both sides eased his mind.

“Don’t worry about that,” Bill said, wiggling his hips. “I can handle it.”

Dipper snorted. “Because you like pain so much, right?”  
He peeled Bill’s arms from his shoulders then carefully untangled himself from his legs and got up. Bill watched him silently.

Dipper walked over to the sink, smiling to himself. If Bill really thought making love was just a simple act like that, he really had a lot to learn.  
Opening the medical cabinet he rummaged through a heap of pill bottles until he found what he was looking for.

“Want to drug me again?” Bill asked from his spot on the floor.

Dipper snorted. “No,” he replied. “Even worse. Maybe you’ll even beg me to knock you out.”

“Come on now, Pine tree,” Bill laughed. “You can’t be that bad.”

Dipper almost dropped the small container he had fished from the back but he had to grin. He couldn’t deny that joking around like that greatly decreased the sudden nervousness. Yet he flushed all the way down to his shoulders when he settled between the other’s knees again. Bill’s gaze followed his every move as he unscrewed the cap and put a heap of Vaseline on his fingers.  
They both realized he was hesitating but before the grin could fully form on Bill’s face, Dipper grabbed the back of his head and crushed their mouths together once more.  
This way he couldn’t watch him. And he was quiet too.

The remains of his smile still lingered on lips but soon vanished when he sucked on his tongue. Dipper reached down and caressed the inside of Bill’s thigh with the back of his hand. The muscles moved under his touch.

“Tease,” Bill growled against his teeth before resuming the kiss.

Dipper allowed himself a few more moments to simply enjoy the feeling, then carefully pressed his fingertips against the others vulnerable skin. Bill tensed but relaxed quickly again so so he gently eased in the tip of his finger.

“Tell me when it gets uncomfortable, okay?”

“You just shoved a finger up my ass. I think we are long past that line.”

Dipper looked at him, trying to figure out how serious he really was. As expected there was a smile. It disappeared at the sight of his concerned face.

“Sorry, it’s fine,” Bill reassured him. “I’m just… not used to this… situation.”

Dipper let out a breath.  
“Me neither,” he said.

It made Bill chuckled. “Very reassuring.”

“Shut up,” Dipper scoffed and pushed in a second digit, satisfied with the small gasp he received in return.

“So this is how I get you going?” Bill noted, his voice a little breathier than before.

Dipper rolled his eyes.  
“I’m just taking it slowly. I don’t want to hurt you...much.”

Bill smiled. “I know,” he said and pulled him close again. “You don’t.”

Dipper nuzzled into his neck and returned his focus to further downwards.  
His fingers slid in further and he began to gently move them. Bill’s breath was hot against his shoulder. They stayed like this for a while until they had adjusted to each other. When he feared the other was going to get impatient again, Dipper playfully brushed against him with his free hand. Bill groaned, clenching around his fingers.  
Dipper carefully remove them, curled them around himself and applied a few quick strokes, coating the sensitive skin. His pulse quickened in anticipation when Bill latched onto his neck and shifted to hug him closer. He slung an arm around his waist and angled his hips.  
Then he halted, allowing himself a moment to take it all in.

The cold from the rain outside had vanished completely.  
He could feel the movement of Bill’s chest, a little quicker now than before. The warmth of his skin. The tickle of soft hair against his cheek.  
He couldn’t help but wonder how all their fighting had eventually led to this. The memory of Bill following him into the woods during his first encounter with the nightmare emerged in his mind. He remembered clearly how his hand had felt in his own. That was the moment, he decided, when it had all begun.  
Maybe later he would have the courage to tell Bill about it.

A gentle nudge against his shoulders abruptly stopped his daydreaming. It turned into a not so gentle push when he resisted.  
At first he panicked, thinking Bill had changed his mind after all. But he made no attempt to free himself. After a moment of struggling for balance, Dipper relaxed and let himself be pushed back onto the floor with Bill straddling him. He couldn’t deny that it made him very curious.  
Not to mention immensely aroused. Whereas last time, in a similar situation, there had been a knife against his ribs. 

His stomach constricted when Bill’s hands explored his body. They moved down along his sides, across his hips and took hold of his erection.  
Dipper gasped. The weight lifted off his legs and his heart skipped a beat when he realized what Bill was about to do.  
His hands went to his waist. He needed something to hold onto.

Bill lowered himself and pushed down. Dipper’s eyes fell shut as he was eaten up by slick heat.  
“Fuck,” he groaned, digging his fingers into the other's skin.

Bill chuckled softly. “I’m trying.”

Dipper snorted but it quickly changed into a moan when he was pushed in further as Bill settled onto his lap. It took a moment to gain control again.

Bill obviously liked his reaction. He was smirking down at him despite the discomfort.  
“So this is what it’s all about, huh?” he asked, bucking his hips a little.

Dipper groaned. “I guess. Sorry you’re disappointed. He tried to keep his voice steady. “We can switch?”

Something crossed Bill’s face but was gone again too quickly. It made room for a grin but his voice sounded softer.  
“No,” he said. “I like seeing you like this. And I’m not disappointed,” he added.

He moved again, gently at first but slowly growing more confident. It was almost too much already. Dipper felt his back arch, his shoulders pressing against the carpet.  
He concentrated on taking steady breaths.

“No need to hold back,” Bill said, panting a little.

Dipper grabbed his hips tighter, tentatively beginning to move with him.  
Bill’s palms moved up to his chest, over his shoulders and he braced his hands on either side of his head. Dipper gave him a moment to get used to the new angle then tentatively moved his hips again.

Bill’s whole body suddenly tensed up and for a terrifying second Dipper was under the impression that he had hurt him. But then he noticed his hooded eyes and the flush spreading on his cheeks and he couldn’t help smiling.

“Now this is what it’s all about,” he said, enjoying the blonde’s composure melting away.

“I see,” he said and his voice broke a little.

Dipper snickered. An overwhelming sense of fondness spread in his chest and he wanted to pull Bill down and hold him. But on the other hand he didn’t feel like disrupting anything. He settled for running his hands over every part of skin he could reach.  
Bill responded by placing a hand on his cheek and it was the most gentle gesture Dipper had ever received from him. He felt like his heart was going to explode.  
Looking up he made to say something but a thrust of Bills hips choked his words.  
Heat raced straight into his abdomen, the muscles of his legs constricting.  
Another roll of his hips and Dipper pushed up against Bill, gripping his thighs. Almost instantly they found each other’s rhythm again.

Dipper’s nerves were blazing with overstimulation, his senses heightened to the point where he perceived every movement, every touch and the heat of their skin with intense clarity.  
He alternated between holding his breath and gasping for air as his body broke their synchronized movement.  
He didn’t know if it was the unexpected intimacy or the unusual circumstances that made him react so intensely. He deeply wished it would last longer but his body betrayed him. He tried to push Bill off but the other was having none of that. Instead he ground down even harder making him gasp.

Dipper barely managed to utter Bill’s name before the tension that had been building up inside him finally snapped. His entire body went numb and for a brief moment he couldn’t feel anything at all.  
He also made a terribly embarrassing noise that he just couldn’t hold back. But Bill didn’t seem to mind. He slowed a little but didn’t stop completely until Dipper’s vision had returned and his heart rate calmed down to a reasonable level. He was looking down at him, seeming rather pleased.

Dipper was suddenly too exhausted to care. He knew that smug grin could also look a lot different. He bucked his hips, eliciting a moan and wrapped both his hands around the heated flesh in his lap.  
Bill tensed around him, panting hoarsely, almost making Dipper come a second time.  
A few more strokes were enough. Bill closed his eyes and bit his lip and Dipper wished he could take a picture. He stayed quiet but shivers rocked his whole body when heat spilled onto Dipper’s fingers, a good portion of it hitting his stomach.

It took him a few seconds to regain his composure.  
“Sorry,” he whispered after a moment, still out of breath.

Dipper shook his head. “Don’t worry about it… glad you enjoyed it though.”

“Almost as much as you.”

Dipper didn’t know where to look. He let Bill relished in his embarassment for a moment then gently flexed his hips. He didn’t mind staying close for a while longer but now he had the other’s full weight on him.  
“My legs are falling asleep.”

Bill struggled to get up then hung his head.  
“Give me a second.”

Dipper chuckled, reached over his head and pulled down a towel to wipe himself down. With a quiet grown Bill finally slipped off and knelt beside him.  
He leaned down and stole a quick kiss.  
“Want to shower together now?”

Dipper couldn’t find the strength to even lift his head. The floor was pleasantly cool below him.  
“Yes please,” he said and let Bill pull him to his feet.

Outside the rain had stopped.

 

***

 

Dipper stepped out of the bathtub, hoping they hadn’t used up all the water. He had stayed a little longer than Bill, enjoying the stream of warmth on his back and the time alone to think.

There was no way both of them could stay in his cramped college dorm but rent was expensive. He could work more shifts at his part-time job until Bill had the necessary papers to get his own. A tiny apartment was enough for them at first. It would be a lot of work, Dipper was sure, but it was going to be worth it.

Drying himself off, he kicked the few scattered clothes into a corner. As he wrapped the towel around his waist and made his way to the bedroom to get dressed, he heard voices coming from the room.  
He glanced inside curiously and saw Mabel holding up one of Stan’s old shirts to Bill’s chest who was already wearing one of his great uncle’s old pants. Both garments were too wide for him and looked rather ridiculous.

“You can just take some of my stuff, you know,” Dipper said.

The two turned around to him. Bill stuck out his leg.  
“Don’t you like my new style?”

Mabel, who should have laughed with either of them only smiled faintly. She handed Bill the shirt and made to leave when he reached out and held her back.  
He immediately let go when she flinched at his touch.  
Dipper noted to strange atmosphere around them but Bill bravely held her gaze.

“Thank you,” he said and Mabel’s tension vanished. She even smiled at him.

“Welcome,” she said quietly, although a little surprised and turned away.

Dipper couldn’t see how these terrible clothes she had picked out for him accounted for such a reaction. They were going to do some serious shopping first thing, he decided.

When Mabel passed him by the door she gave him a long look. And another one of those sad smiles. Then she left them alone.

Bill pulled the shirt over his head.

“You should have known Mabel always goes for the most colorful ones,” Dipper said with a smirk, pointing at the flashy flower pattern.

Bill shrugged his shoulders.  
“I rather like it. At least I’m the one actually wearing any clothes.”

Dipper crossed his arms.  
“You say that like it’s a good thing.”

That made Bill laugh and Dipper’s chest hurt with happiness. He walked up to him, reached for his face and planted a kiss on the corner of his mouth.  
Bill hugged him in return, pulling their chests together so tightly it was difficult to breathe.  
He licked his lips like he wanted to say something but for a long while nothing came. Dipper noticed his hair smelling a bit different even though they had used the same shampoo. It was probably the stuffy room.  
When they parted Bill was no longer smiling.

“What is it?” Dipper asked.

A faint grin returned to the other’s face.  
“It really is an unfashionable shirt.”

Dipper laughed as he turned to the wardrobe. He didn’t mind Bill watching him but he frowned when he flopped onto his bed with his feet on his pillow. He hoped he didn’t expect a show or anything.

“Have you ever heard people talking about near-death experiences?” Bill asked when Dipper was busy looking for a clean T-shirt.  
“You know why they claim to have seen a mysterious light of familiar voices talking to them?”

Dipper turned, wondering where this was coming from all of a sudden.  
“Aren’t they hallucinating or something,” he asked, putting on a pair of shorts.

“A human’s mind has powerful abilities to protect itself,” Bill continued. “When a person dies… and I’m not talking about instantaneous deaths...it shuts off most of the external sensations and creates an alternate reality to retreat to for comfort. Which makes the whole process bearable. In other words they’re dreaming.”

Dipper raised an eyebrow. “So dying really is just like falling asleep?”

Bill rolled onto his back.  
“For your body at least,” he said. “Your mind, however, enters the dreamscape… At least for a moment before it passes onto… well, whatever you believe in I guess.”

“The cemetery,” Dipper replied dryly. He didn’t like where this conversation was going. When had the mood shifted to something so depressing? Maybe Bill was pondering the pros and cons of staying human?

He walked over to the bed and looked down at him.  
“Why are we talking about this?” he asked “I don’t think the dreams I have would comfort me much. Especially in that situation.”

He wanted to be funny but Bill didn’t even smile.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s because I wasn’t there.”

“What do you mean?” Dipper asked, brushing a strand of light hair from his face.

“Your nightmares,” Bill explained. He let his eyes fall shut.  
“Minds are flawed. They need guidance and sometimes restraint when dreaming. That’s what I’m here for. What do you think I was doing all these millennia?”

“Being a jerk and sending nightmares after the people you don’t like while planning to conquer the universe?”

Bill chuckled. “All right, the last part’s true.”  
He gently removed Dipper’s hand. “But that was before I knew how much work it is to take over another dimension.”

“Yeah right,” Dipper laughed.  
He leaned down and kissed the frown off Bill’s face. He didn’t want to discuss any of these topics right now.  
“Let’s go,” he said. “I’m starving.”

Bill followed him out the room and along the hallway, not minding when he took his hand. They walked down the stairs but stopped at the back door. It was hanging open slightly and a stream of sunlight flooded their feet. Outside raindrops glistened on the grass, treetops swaying gently in the wind. It felt like home.

Dipper felt Bill hesitate to talk again.  
But it was okay, he thought, there was no need to rush. They could do all the talking at a later time.

“Want me to get you something to drink?” Dipper asked when the tense silence stretched on too long.

Bill shook his head. “No, thanks.”

Dipper made his way to the kitchen, feeling a strange reluctance to leave. Something was definitely on the other’s mind. He would have to ask him later. He turned around again briefly before joining his sister and saw Bill looking out towards the forest.  
The afternoon was so beautiful. Why did he look so sad?

Mabel was busy setting up a pot of rice and boiling down a packet of instant curry with frozen vegetables that had survived the blackout. She seemed in deep concentration, barely noticing when Dipper approached her.

“Smells good,” he said carefully, trying to get a feeling for what was troubling her.

She turned and looked at him with pity where he had expected confusion or mocking.  
“You okay?” she asked.

Dipper was caught off guard. Wasn’t she supposed to lecture him or something? Scold him for his terrible life choices?

“Are you?” he replied. “What’s wrong?”  
He walked over to the fridge and took out the last of the soda cans. He was about to ask if Mabel wanted to share it but her expression stopped him.

“How is it you always fall for the weird ones?”  
Dipper choked on a breath.  
He thought about denying it but Mabel gave him that look that meant she already knew everything and there was no way to dodge the question. He had gotten to know it too well over the years.

“I wish I knew,” he said, cracking open the can. “Guess I have a few self-destructive tendencies.”

He expected at least a smile but the crease between his sister’s brows only deepened.  
“Has Bill already-…,” she started. “Did he-...uhm… “  
With the spoon in her hand she gestured into the air.

“Did he what?”  
He was getting impatient. Why did everyone have such a problem talking to him properly today? He waited for an uncomfortable question but Mabel couldn’t ask it. Her mouth opened and closed helplessly, apprehension growing larger on her face.

“That bastard,” she hissed. “I thought he’d told you.”

Dipper’s heart sprang into his throat. “Told me what?”

Mabel clapped a hand over her mouth.  
“That he-…” She took a breath. “Dipper, he-…”

Maybe it was the look on her face or the connection they shared but she didn’t need to finish the sentence.  
Dipper understood.

He had seen the clothes Bill was wearing, the way he had looked towards the woods. The smile he had given him. Knew the words he hadn’t been able to say.

There were only two plates on the table.

Dipper didn’t even acknowledge the can slowly slipping from his hand, didn’t hear it hit the ground and didn’t care about the content spilling all over the floor.  
He bolted out of the room, through the hallway, towards the porch. His legs were heavy and slow, his hands shaking when he threw open the back door.

Bill had already crossed the meadow, only a few steps away from the forest. He turned slowly, almost as if dreading what he would see.

Dipper ran. The wet ground slowed him down.  
He yelled Bill’s name even though he couldn’t breathe or perhaps he didn’t. He couldn’t remember. Something was choking him.

All he did remember, though, was the impossibly gentle look on Bill’s face when he was only a few steps away.  
Why wasn’t he sad? Or angry? Or hurting as much as he was?  
Dipper reached out, wanting to grab him and scream. He couldn’t just leave like this. Not after everything. Not after Bill had made them fight nightmares, carved symbols into his bones, hurt him, lied to him, tricked him, kissed him.

There was still so much he hadn’t said or done or shown him and how dare he run away from it all?  
And without saying goodbye.

Dipper grabbed a fistful of fabric from a shirt that suddenly fit. On a body that was unfamiliar. Looked up at a face he barely recognized.

The golden eyes he had come to love were gone.

And so was Bill.


	48. Epilogue

The mysterious disappearance and reappearance of a man who had vanished after a car accident made the headlines of the local newspaper for an entire week.  
The collective memory loss of the entire town, however, only appeared once, at the bottom of page seven.  
Nonetheless, the story was a success for local businesses since even more tourists than usual would come to visit the small town of Gravity Falls.

Of course it helped that the man claimed to have been abducted by aliens and experimented on. How else were they going to explain the rapid healing of his body?  
Doctors had found multiple sclerotic fractures on his femur, tibia, pelvis, multiple ribs and along the side of his skull which looked several years old but hadn’t been there before the accident. They also looked for the cause of previously existing symptoms of a neurodegenerative disease but found him completely healthy. According to the man they had suddenly disappeared as well which only fueled his believes.  
Eventually he left the town along with a bunch of curious reporters, promising a book or two after he had started over with his life.

He barely had time to thank the pair of siblings who had found him aimlessly wandering the woods, dressed in an old shirt and a pair of ugly pants he had never seen before. A gift from the aliens who had no sense of fashion, he told everyone.

As for Dipper and Mabel, they spent the rest of the day answering questions.  
First at the police station, where they explained to an overworked young officer how a confused man had stumbled out of the forest. Then at the hospital where all three of them were sent for a checkup because apparently they looked like they hadn’t slept for a week. And last to a hoard of reporters from the neighboring villages who had been unable to reach or even communicate with the town for days.

In the end everything was blamed on the storm and landslides, fallen trees and bad internet connection. Only a few people insisted they had seen and felt strange things but failed to make consistent statements.  
After sunset the town had returned to normal.  
Or at least to the state everyone was used to.

The Mystery Shack was a welcomed retreat after the exhausting afternoon and Dipper was really looking forward to his bed and finally a good night’s sleep.  
He hadn’t really had time to think about Bill.  
Perhaps his overworked mind hadn’t let him.  
But in the silence and darkness of the house the fact that he was gone slowly wormed its way into his mind.

The blood-stained journals, a forgotten knife, and the scratches on the lock of Ford’s door made him glad it was all over. A pile of clothes on the bathroom floor sent a painful twinge down his chest. But when his eyes fell on the third toothbrush by the sink everything came crashing down.

He didn’t know when he had finally fallen asleep.  
He remembered Mabel sitting by his side most of the night until exhaustion had taken over.

Despite that he woke before sunrise, curled up on the sofa on the porch and stared at the forest. Mabel brought him lunch at noon but he didn’t eat it.

Only the return of Soos and their great uncles brightened his mood. They had wanted to invite them for dinner some place fancy but since the town had recently run out of food, they sent Soos to buy supplies for a barbecue and he had returned with a truckload of delicacies.

During dinner they exchanged stories but the twins had decided to keep their adventures to themselves.  
It would only worry them, Mabel had said but Dipper suspected she hadn’t wanted to bring up Bill all the time and he was grateful for that. Ford had seemed suspicious at first but then Mabel confessed they had been so bored they wanted to break into his room which not only satisfied him but also made him laugh.

In the evening they packed their bags and headed for the bus stop and after a teary goodbye, mostly on Mabel’s and Soos’ part, they were on their way back home.  
Of course they promised to visit again soon.

It took a while for Dipper to get over everything. But he was young and had his whole life ahead of him. At least that’s what Mabel kept telling him.  
It got better as time passed and eventually Dipper found back into his old life.

He still suffered from nightmares occasionally but sometimes, when they were especially bad, a warm hand would sneak into his and when he woke the next day, calm and rested, he wouldn’t remember anything.

 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!


End file.
